Naruto the Spandex hero
by dakeyras
Summary: Mizuki strikes a year earlier, with some unexpected effects. Minor AU, probably NaruHina pairing but that's a while off, it takes a while to start with spandex-wearing. Weekly updates currently. T for language and violence. Manga source only.
1. Chapter 1

The small boy was sitting dejectedly on a swing. Most of his classmates were in an excited mass over by their parents, proudly clutching their new Konoha ninja headbands, while he had neither managed to pass his exams and gain the headband he desperately desired, or parents to celebrate it with. After sitting there for around half an hour, he wandered off. He consoled himself with the fact that he had only failed it twice, and as he'd started attending the academy earlier, he would now be with students his own age.

As the child wandered the streets, he heard the mutters and felt the stares of the villagers. While nothing new, it still upset him. He quickly ducked down an alley, took a secret shortcut, and jumped over a low fence, taking him to his new favourite hiding spot, where so far not even Iruka-sensei had managed to find him.

Elsewhere, a tall man with long pale hair was searching for the boy. He had high hopes for what today could bring, but if he couldn't find the boy, he'd have to wait a whole year to try again. Finally, after ages of slipping around the village, he finally saw his target leave an alley. The boy probably had some sort of nest in there; it would be where he'd go once he'd got the scroll, and where the man could take it off him.

"Naruto!" the man called.

At the mention of the name, most of the surrounding people looked even grimmer than usual. The boy, however, had already taken off running. If the man hadn't had a shadow clone in front of him already, he would have most likely lost the slippery little thing. As it was, he had a hard time restraining him. 'Better and better – the kid certainly seemed to capable of sneaking in, grabbing the scroll and escaping,' the man thought to himself.

"You're not in trouble, I just want to talk!" the man said, as the boy hung from his clone's grasp. He formed a few quick seals, placing a genjutsu around them that would divert attention from his words. "There's something I need to tell you about the exam. There's a special field test that can be taken which mimics a mission. You can use it to pass and become a genin!"

"What? Why didn't I know this earlier?" the child said loudly. The man winced. His genjutsu could keep civilians from noticing anything, but it was harder to affect ninja, so it was best to keep things quiet.

"It's a secret so people don't rely on it. I needed special authorisation from the Hokage himself. I think you deserve this chance. But letting others know about it fails you automatically." The man was satisfied with the lies he'd spun.

"What do I do, Mizuki-sensei?" the boy asked quickly. The man grinned to himself. Manipulating the demon was easier than he'd expected.

"It's simple. There's a scroll in the Hokage's office with jutsu on it. You have to steal the scroll and learn a skill from it." That should get him to squirrel himself away, where Mizuki could take the scroll of forbidden jutsu away without anyone else finding him first. And if the brat managed to try any of the jutsu in the scroll, it would kill him from lack of chakra.

"I'm on it!" and the boy was off. The man grinned again, dispelled his clone and the genjutsu, and left to hunt down the boy's hideout. After all, how hard could it be for a chunin to find something a failed genin had hidden?

-X-

Naruto quickly leapt out of the Hokage's office, the scroll on his back. Years of practice had led to him being nearly impossible to catch even for ANBU, as long as he had a few seconds head start and was near an alley, which in Konoha covered nearly everywhere.

Something was definitely fishy. Mizuki normally hated him as much as, if not more than, the other teachers, except for the new Iruka who seemed to like him. Then again, Iruka-sensei also caught him after his pranks, which was quite annoying. But Mizuki didn't seem like someone who'd go out of their way to help Naruto, and yet here he'd apparently gotten special permission from the Hokage to let Naruto try a special exam to pass to Genin. Most likely, Mizuki wanted the scroll himself.

However, there was one upside to this. Naruto now had a really good reason for learning some kick-ass new jutsu from the stolen scroll, and when Mizuki came for it he could simply escape and return it to the Hokage, who'd probably kick Mizuki's butt so hard it separated from his body.

Naruto landed in his hidden den, checking his traps (some tin cans on a string) to see if anyone had disturbed them. It seemed he had a little time. Opening the scroll, he began to read the first jutsu.

-X-

As the tin cans jangled on their string, a cloud of smoke enveloped the open space. When the smoke cleared, a glance sufficed to see around a hundred kunai littering the ground. A single child was standing in the middle, clutching a scroll, while another scroll of equal size but sloppier writing was swiftly stowed in a disguised hole in the ground.

Iruka leapt down, landed in front of his most troublesome student and started yelling about how irresponsible, dangerous and downright stupid it was to steal a scroll of forbidden jutsu. Naruto, seeing an opportunity to 'accidentally' tell him the truth, looked up cheerfully and said "You can stop pretending, Mizuki's exam is already over! I got the scroll and learnt a jutsu."

Iruka's eyes widened. A sixth sense made him launch Naruto out of the way as a barrage of ninja weapons sped towards him. At the last moment, a cloud of smoke covered Naruto and he burst out, pulling Iruka away from the danger and taking his place. As the blades pierced him, he disappeared in another puff of smoke and could now be seen, faintly, in the first cloud.

"Wha-" Mizuki was interrupted by twenty of the kunai on the field transforming back into clones, who threw the other eighty at him. He dodged most, blocked a few, and took some minor hits. His counter-volley took all the clones off their feet and dispelled them.

"That all you got?" he snarled at Naruto. "You know why you're hated, don't you?"

Iruka hurled a few knives at him, which he jumped over before continuing, a sneer on his face. "Even Iruka hates you!"

"Shut up!" Iruka yelled at him.

"The villagers despise you because of a secret you can never know! The secret is this…"

"Stop talking!" Iruka charged forwards, a kunai in each hand. Naruto sat there, a burning need to know inside him. Mizuki drew an oversized shuriken and whirled it through the air, preparing to launch.

"You are the kyuubi, the demon fox that attacked the village!"

Naruto sat there stunned, but as Mizuki launched the shuriken at him, on a course that would take it away from Iruka and possible rescue, the kunai around him turned into shadow clones of Naruto. One kicked the shuriken away, while the rest pounded the traitor into the dirt. Iruka leapt onto him, delivering a knockout blow to his temple.

Iruka turned to him as the clones dispelled in a large cloud of smoke. "You're not a demon. You are a child without parents, and yet you're becoming a talented ninja. You didn't pass this year, but with this jutsu there is no way you won't succeed for the next exams. Now come on, let's get some ramen."

**A/N: **This is only my second fanfic and my first try at a Naruto one. Reviews are very welcome, please let me know whether you like the intro and what you think of my writing style. There will probably be an arc of another 2-3 chapters before the next exams, where Naruto will become a genin and the spandex fun will begin.


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto simply sat there, not talking, not reacting. He'd eaten the ramen by instinct, it seemed, but Iruka doubted he'd tasted any of it. He was obviously thinking hard about something. Iruka recalled the conversation in the Hokage's office.

_Mizuki had been bound and taken away by Ibiki. Iruka really didn't envy him, and didn't want to think too hard about what would happen to him now. The Sandaime Hokage had heard both his and Naruto's stories, and was talking to Naruto now._

"_Mizuki, along with the villagers, are wrong. You are not a demon. You are the demon's container, which is a very different thing. When you were a newborn baby, the Yondaime Hokage sealed the Kyuubi in you to stop its rampage. Your sacrifice, and his, saved the village and all its inhabitants. If people had any sense, they'd thank you for protecting them. However, the villagers are more foolish than the Yondaime believed. Instead of thanking you, they treat you as they would a demon."_

_Naruto looked pretty shocked by this turn of events. "So what this means is that I'm cursed to carry a demon to protect Konoha, and all of Konoha hates me for it?"_

"_Not quite __**all**__ of Konoha. The more powerful ninja, who know more about sealing techniques, understand that you are just a child with a heavier burden than most. And besides, you do gain something out of it. Firstly, you heal at a medically impossible rate. Secondly, the jutsu you just learned, tajukagebunshin-no-jutsu, is a more advanced form of kagebunshin-no-jutsu, which only creates a single clone but is still upper chunin rank. Most jonin would have been killed from chakra drain if they'd attempted to create as many clones as you just did."_

_Naruto looked shocked. "But… but it barely tired me at all!"_

_The Sandaime continued, "That is the power of the fox. You continually had to contain its chakra with your own, strengthening your coils and increasing your reserves to near my level, although my chakra use is so controlled and efficient compared with yours I may as well have a hundred times your amount. You want to become Hokage – the fox has helped you fulfil some of the requirements already. You can even call on its strength in a life-or-death situation."_

_Naruto was stunned. The fox that had attacked Konoha had been sealed into him by the Yondaime Hokage and was giving him the strength to become Hokage too. That was a lot to take in._

"_You should go get some rest. If you have other questions, come to me at any time."_

And then he'd made good on his promise of ramen. And Naruto was just sitting there, staring blankly. He wondered what the boy was thinking about.

-X-

In actual fact, Naruto's thoughts were going at a ridiculous rate. 'Yondaime personally picked me as the host of the demon – I was selected by the Fourth Hokage! The demon strengthens my chakra to Hokage levels, I wonder if I can boost it even higher? There's so many things I can use my shadow clones for! I need to go train so I can pass the next exam!'

At last, Naruto was done thinking for the moment. Jumping up, he thanked Iruka-sensei for the meal and dashed off at top speed. Iruka covertly following him to make sure he was OK, but Naruto was capable of giving virtually every person in Konoha the slip. A gap in a fence, a hidden fire escape, and some thick bushes combined with an old, now thankfully clean, sewage pipe and he was gone.

Back at the abandoned lot where he and Mizuki had had their showdown, Naruto quickly grabbed the scroll copy he'd had his clones make and ran off to another private area that Iruka-sensei hopefully hadn't found yet. He opened the scroll and read through the description of shadow clones again.

"The shadow clone is different, superior, to other clones, for it can act independently, requiring neither direction from the creator nor a complex set of predefined instructions. It acts, to all intents and purposes, like another copy of the user. However, the greatest use of it is to learn. Any experience a clone has, any knowledge it gains, will go to the user when the clone dispels. Note that this works for learning techniques and practicing chakra control, but can't be used to gain muscle or change chakra flows, as these changes are not solely in the mind."

Naruto sat back and grinned. His days, which had seemed so crammed with work before, were now looking a lot more relaxed and pleasant. The rest of the scroll, with advanced chakra control techniques and jonin-level jutsu, would keep around fifty clones busy. Browsing the library for texts on ninjutsu, taijutsu and genjutsu would take around twenty more, as the librarians were very suspicious and would notice the sudden glut of people. One or two clones per lesson at the academy, including the lessons for other years and for sub-topics he hadn't taken would need another fifty. And then he'd take another thirty to practice group sparring with each other, who he could replace when they popped. Overall, that was 150 shadow clones per day, which he could do with a little effort, and then when they dispelled that evening he'd gain insane amounts of knowledge and experience.

Naruto went home and dreamt of what the morning would bring.

-X-

Over the next couple of days, reports came into the Hokage's office of suspicious strangers seen in the archives, the training grounds, the academy, and the village in general. Each time they were confronted, attacked, knocked out, or otherwise incapacitated they would dispel into a cloud of smoke and then a similar person would take their place a few minutes later. No-one knew the cause or the solution. Except for one man.

"Hello Iruka-sensei!" Naruto said as one of the few people who didn't hate him came by his home that evening. "What brings you here?"

"Look, I understand you want to use your new jutsu to its fullest advantage, but this has to stop. Your transformed clones are disrupting lessons, scaring civilians, and keeping the ANBU run ragged trying to discover who's behind this huge covert intelligence gathering mission."

Naruto frowned. "I was careful to use henge-no-jutsu to change my appearance each time I doubled up. Why do they think someone's gathering information? And how did you know it was me?"

"Look, did you not notice your clones dispelling all over the place? And how many do you have? ANBU think there's at least 10."

"So that's where the clones went! I thought I was giving them too little chakra. Anyway, can you ask them to stop? It really messes up my training having to make new clones all the time."

Iruka sighed. "I respect, and am slightly surprised by, your desire to train, but having random people turn up everywhere all of a sudden will get noticed, especially in a ninja village. Just be a little more circumspect. And back to my earlier question, how many clones do you have at once? I think the ANBU were a little generous in their estimates, there's no way you'd have ten shadow clones with enough strength to last most of a day."

Naruto grinned. "Actually, it's about 150."

Iruka fainted.

-X-

Iruka came to in a rush. 'What a strange dream,' he thought to himself. 'I thought that Naruto had made 150 shadow clones.'

He rolled over and saw a grinning blond head five centimetres away. "Gah!" he shouted as he leapt up. Suddenly it all came rushing back. "You actually made that many clones. Well done, I'm proud of you."

Naruto's face lit up. "Do you wanna know my training schedule? It's great, I saw it in the scroll, it's by the second Hokage!"

Iruka nearly fainted again. "All right," he said weakly. "Are you feeling healthy? Not exhausted or like you've depleted your chakra reserves?"

"I'm fine," came the quick response. "Anyway, I have thirty clones sparring and practicing taijutsu and combination moves, fifty learning jutsu and practicing chakra control, fifty at the Academy, and twenty at the library looking at new information. They should be starting to wrap up now." A sudden flicker of comprehension crossed Naruto's face as he received a load of knowledge. "Did you know that the difference between knowing a jutsu and mastering a jutsu is the number and speed of the seals you need to make it? And that advanced ninja can perform a close-range switching technique with air, but tend to use leaves or sand instead to limit chakra use? And…"

Iruka interrupted him. "I see you're learning a lot, and that makes me happy, but be careful. Some people wouldn't approve of what you're doing, and you also need to make sure you know your limits so you don't overstep them. Anyway, keep on training like this and you'll make Hokage in record time!" With that he gave Naruto a pat on the head and leapt away, to explain to the Sandaime that the strange clones were just Naruto and that his ANBU wouldn't have to prepare for a covert war any longer.

He just hoped that the boy didn't hurt himself in his extreme training.

**A/N**: I got this chapter finished within 24 hours of the last one! Time to post! Please review to let me know what you think of this chapter. It's a little boring, but it's necessary for Naruto to be more that a wet-behind-the-ears genin when he graduates.


	3. Chapter 3

Guy walked to the Hokage's office, deep in thought. 'Where did it all go wrong?' he wondered. It had started with a missing-nin sneaking past the ANBU patrols while they were undermanned due to Mizuki's betrayal, which lead to Tenten being attacked by the rogue. But then Neji had saved her, and it had all seemed well again. The two of them had even romantically involved.

Then it had all crashed and burned, and now Tenten had asked to move group. Neji and Lee were also not getting on anymore, so that was another group split. His team of three was apparently doomed to become three groups of one.

The man's musings were interrupted as he entered the Hokage's office, where he'd been summoned to talk about his group problems. "Good day, Sandaime!" he called out.

"Greetings, Guy," the old man said, smoking his pipe, then went straight to business. "What solutions to our problems can you offer?"

"Sandaime, I must respectfully ask for a reshuffling of the groups. It appears that the group I was assigned, while all capable, lack a synergy to allow their youthful flames to burn brightly together," the green-clothed man said regretfully.

The Hokage sighed and puffed on his pipe. "There's a slight problem in that the other genin team from the same graduation year is almost perfectly suited to work as reconnaissance, with a good team spirit, and I don't want to break that up. Then again, it's a mere six months from now until the new genins graduate. Here's what I suggest: You keep Lee, as he appears to benefit the most from your ideology, and I'll pass Neji over to Kurenai and Tenten to Asuma. The three of you can train a single genin for a while, and you'll receive two graduate genin each when the next year is done."

The spandex ninja frowned. "I accept on one condition: I decide which students I receive. That way I can choose those whose flames can be fanned the brightest! I will take and train the most youthful team Konoha has ever seen!" The Hokage sighed.

"As you wish, Guy. Now, inform your group of their future, and I'll let the other affected senseis know."

-X-

Guy sunk even lower into the bushes, watching the class through a window. He'd have to pick two genin who trained hard and could be motivated even further. Maybe another Hyuuga, as he knew quite a bit about how to train their unique Juken style. As he considered this, a blond boy in an orange jumpsuit caught his eye. He was pretending to be staring out the window, but Guy could see that his attention never wavered from the instructor, who was teaching genjutsu disruption methods. He was also covered by a high-quality henge that hid his large muscles, a good sign that he trained hard. This looked like a potential member of his new group, but he'd look for four or five potential recruits before he narrowed it down to the final pair. But first, he wanted to see what the boy's training was like to have muscles like that.

A second henge caught his eye as he turned to leave. Another copy of the boy was taking notes while disguised as a rather plain-looking kunoichi. The memory of an academy student using a forbidden clone jutsu to defeat a traitorous chunin immediately came to mind. The fox's host, using shadow clones in his everyday life to improve his learning? This child was well worth keeping in mind, he seemed to be most youthful if he spent so much effort on his work, although Guy wondered why he hid it from the teachers and pupils alike.

-X-

The next day, as Guy was watching the Academy class again, he saw a kid in a pair of red trousers and a blue-black vest start trying to intimidate the Hyuuga girl. Just as he was considering letting his presence be known, he saw the clone-boy, Naruto was his name, confront him. A circle of chanting students soon formed, giving voice to a continuous refrain of "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Guy watched carefully, ready to step in if necessary, but content to watch to study both students for the moment. He could take the measure of the orange jumpsuit-wearing student, and see how well he fought.

-X-

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" The chant echoed around Naruto, who simply ignored it. No distractions could be afforded now; any hit he took would dispel him and cause no end of problems, so he couldn't risk any mistakes. He narrowed his eyes at the other boy, who sneered at him and dropped to a rudimentary taijutsu stance of the kind usually taught at the academy.

Naruto grinned to himself. In terms of technique, he had the definite edge. More strength, more chakra, and using wind chakra for a speed boost meant he should have this in the bag, although keeping his abilities hidden would be good too. And he'd better not use any jutsu on another student, no matter how well-deserved, or the instructors would take advantage of that to kick him out. As the other boy cockily jumped at him, he fell into a deeper stance and subtly shifted his legs and front arm by a few degrees. It was time to see how well his training and new taijutsu style would work.

-X-

Guy watched the slightly different stance, wondering what it was. He'd never seen anything like it before – it was similar to Goken, but subtly different. He had the answer a moment later, as Naruto struck back at the charging boy with a punch that seemed completely unpredictable until it had hit its target.

Amazed by the skill this boy showed, the taijutsu master sat back as he saw the orange boy go on the offensive. A follow-up of a well-timed chakra-enhanced jump and a kick that slipped through the blue-red kid's basic Goken stance had effectively ended the battle – until, that is, the loser whipped a pair of poorly-aimed kunai at Naruto's head from his position on the floor.

Guy prepared to intercept the weapons as he moved to his feet, but the orange ninja had already launched two kunai of his own on a perfect blocking trajectory. As the knives clattered to the ground, the chunin teachers finally stepped in. Mizuki's replacement, a lanky man who was overly strict, quickly leapt in and grabbed each combatant by the ear. "What happened?" he snarled. It was silent enough to hear a pin drop.

"It was all Naruto's fault!" the blue-and-red child put in quickly. "I was talking to Hinata when he provoked me, then attacked me!"

Guy's flames of youth burned bright. He would not let such a valiant defence of a lady's honour be punished! He moved so quickly into the clearing that he appeared to simply teleport. The students gasped for the most part, but some were immediately cautious and ready to fight a potential foe. He marked them out as potential students, then turned to the equally surprised-looking instructor.

"If I may, I was witness to the whole incident. The child who was just so quick to blame his fellow student was behaving in a most unyouthful fashion, and it was also he who threw the first punch." Guy turned to Naruto. "What a youthful way of fighting!" he proclaimed loudly, doing his nice-guy pose. Naruto looked at him as though the green-clad man had recently had a concussion. "Well, I must be off!" he announced loudly. "I recommend no disciplinary action be taken against the boy in the orange suit," he tossed back over his shoulder to the chunin.

As soon as he was back in his hiding place, he watched the unfolding events. Naruto had quickly merged with the crowd, while he heard the other boy be told off for, of all things, his sloppy technique! Never mind the fact that he'd started a fight and then escalated to kunai, the instructor was telling him, in essence, what to do differently next time!

Guy noticed, for the first time, how Naruto seemed to be shunned by the others as he sat on a swing in the corner of the playground. The adults walking by who saw him were giving him dirty looks too. The jonin sat back, considering how stupid the average citizen seemed to be, and then reflected bitterly that half of them were even dumber than that. They were assuming that the bottle was the same as the water inside, and then, believing themselves to be faced with the most powerful monster in existence, did their best to make it angry, alone, and with no loyalty to the village. Guy looked utterly serious for once. Something had to change. But for now, he had to go and talk to some of the other potential jonin instructors about the boy's future, since this didn't bode well.

Shortly after he left, a shy girl with white eyes came over and started talking quietly and hesitantly to the boy.

-X-

Guy was looking in again as the Academy finished for the day and the students went home. He followed Naruto, who said his goodbyes to his classmates and then walked off alone towards the nearest training area, after his clone dispersed in a quiet alley a few streets over.

He was so shocked that he nearly fell off his perch on a wall when the boy just disappeared in a puff of smoke. It had been a clone all along! That… that was phenomenal, to be able to have a clone simply take care of your everyday life for you, and something that not even jonin could usually do. He thought back on his meeting with the other jonin sensei concerning Naruto.

_Kakashi was cool as ever, not even looking at Guy while he spoke. "I think all the boy needs is a balanced group with enough conflict to push him." His eternal rival then pulled out his book and sat there, quietly giggling to himself. Kurenai, on the other hand, seemed more concerned._

"_Is that a potential threat to the village?" she asked him. "I mean, it could be dangerous to have a jinchuriki who is essentially a loose cannon."_

_Asuma took a puff of his cigarette and leant back, thinking out loud. "I think Guy's the best sensei for the lad. Sounds like someone who's full of energy, and you appreciate that more than me. Also, he'll need to channel his large amounts of chakra into something powerful to get the best use out of it, which limits his genjutsu potential. That takes Kurenai out of the equation. And as for Kakashi, he's not openly emotional enough for an orphaned child, and although he has a slight edge in knowing many more powerful jutsu, Guy's benefits outweighs that."_

"_I accept! His flame shall shine brighter than ever before!" Guy had shouted, leaping onto the table. And that had been the end of the others' interest in the boy. He was still a little sad about that._

Now it was time to track the kid down and see what sort of training he did. Guy sped towards the nearest training area, a seldom-used – practically abandoned – patch of trees with a large cement-floored space in the middle, holding six wooden training posts.

He sped towards the middle, careful to stay hidden. What he saw when he arrived took his breath away.

Ten clones were in a circle, popping small rubber balls held in their hands with pure chakra. Another ten were practicing adding elemental chakra to kunai, similar to Asuma's knives. Wind seemed to be going well, as well as water and fire, but earth and lightning were disappearing almost instantly. There were thirty others practising various other nin- and genjutsu. It seemed the wind kunai were the strongest, so the boy probably had a wind affinity, and although being able to utilise the other four elements, even to a limited degree, without months of training and a crazy amount of chakra was considered highly improbable, Naruto was doing that too.

Then Guy's eyes were drawn to the taijutsu training happening elsewhere and he saw nearly thirty clones in small groups, trying to disperse each other using either straight-up taijutsu, chakra-laced kunai, other weapons, or a mixture with minor jutsu like the switching technique and instant movement technique thrown in. Now he understood why Naruto had such a unique taijutsu style – he was trying to make it so that not even he himself could tell how to block his attacks from observing his style, a necessary step when sparring with your own clones. It would be nearly impossible for Byakugan or even low-level Sharingan to follow the boy's movements, so well-disguised were they.

One more person was in the clearing. Guy guessed it was the real Naruto, since he was doing straight-up exercises, which were useless for a shadow clone as the original didn't get the benefit. He concentrated his chakra on his ears and heard a voice count '…88, 89, 90…' while the boy did press-ups. As he reached a hundred, he leapt up and ran around the clearing three times while throwing kunai and shuriken at targets set up amongst the trees.

Naruto then strode to the centre of the clearing and shouted loudly to the taijutsu-clones, "Time for group-spar!"

The clones formed a single large group, except for two who walked over to the real Naruto and transformed into two strange weapons. Guy frowned. That wasn't how the transformation technique worked, you only appeared to change shape, the item you transformed into was only an illusion and couldn't be used. He was therefore thoroughly surprised again when the two strange sword-like transformations were lifted by the handles and had wind chakra poured into them.

With a yell the other clones darted at the original, who swung his blades in a large arc and launched waves of wind chakra at his foes, who avoided them all with well-practiced ease. Naruto darted forwards and plunged his twin weapons into the first clone to reach him, dispelling him instantly. The rest of his enemies surrounded him and a large brawl started, with Naruto's weapons being removed within about twenty seconds and eight dispels. Then the real taijutsu started, with chakra-augmented punches thrown left, right and centre.

Guy couldn't hold it in any longer. He leapt into the clearing, tears of joy in his eyes, and shouted at a startled group of Narutos "How youthful!"

-X-

There were few things that surprised Naruto during his training, but having the large man with a strange green outfit from earlier at the Academy sneak into the middle of his taijutsu and chakra control training was simply shocking. He leapt back from his group spar while his clones dispersed. The rush of knowledge that would once have unbalanced him simply caused his eyes to widen slightly, then all was still again.

"What the heck are you doing here?" he asked the man. He was quite annoyed at having his training session disturbed, and now he'd have to remake all his clones. Little did he know that the man in front of him would change the rest of his life.

-X-

**A/N**: That's all for this time, and I'll update again within two weeks. Review and let me know what you think. There should be a lot of action in the next two chapters, as well as more plot advancement.

Also, while Naruto is a lot more powerful than in canon, next chapter will show just how powerful he really is. I don't want to make this a God!Naruto fic, and there'd be little point to becoming a spandex ninja if Naruto were that powerful.


	4. Chapter 4

The bushy-browed man in front of Naruto was wearing a flak vest, so he was definitely at least chunin rank. His eccentricities and the way he held himself, plus the fact that he'd managed to sneak up on Naruto so easily meant he was at least jonin-level in terms of skill. And his appearance at the academy implied that he was in some way linked to teaching. Therefore, he was most likely a jonin sensei for a group of genin.

All these thoughts flashed through Naruto's head at a rate that a year ago would have been impossible, but he'd learnt quickly that prolonged use of the shadow clone training technique changed how quickly his mind worked. Remembering a part of the scroll, which he had memorised completely now, he recalled that 'as the speed of a ninja's body increases, so too should their mind, for even if their reflexes are sufficient to operate their bodies in small fragments of time during combat, their actions can be predicted easily by those who have studied them', in the words of the Yondaime. Supposedly, he'd been the fastest ninja to ever exist.

Naruto focused onto the man again, who he could see from this close was definitely dressed in spandex, and had two large eyebrows that looked like caterpillars. "Who the hell are you?" he asked loudly, trying to play dumb. It was easier to deal with people when they thought they were smarter than you.

"I am Might Guy, the jonin who fans the flames of Konoha's youth!" he shouted, while taking a pose with one foot forward and holding his thumb up while smiling in a slightly unnerving manner. "And I believe you are most youthful indeed! Have no fear, I do not seek to remove your training area. In fact, train with me now that we might both improve!"

Naruto blinked, then blinked again. The guy was definitely real, not a genjutsu or figment of his imagination. "You want to what?"

"Train together! Come, attack me so that I can teach you!"

Happy to be able to train against someone new, the orange ninja leapt forwards, ready to test his skills against a jonin – and was promptly thrown halfway across the clearing, without his opponent having appeared to move! "Come, you can do better than that!" the green man called again. "Come at me with your weapons, and show me your true abilities."

Naruto needed no second invitation. A shower of kunai flew in front of him, laden with wind chakra to pierce his opponent, which Guy avoided easily. It only earned Naruto a second of respite, but a second was all he needed. He formed two shadow clones then let them transform into his weapons of choice. Flowing water chakra down one to create a sticky whip from the pommel and fire chakra down the other to flicker brightly and help hide some of his technique, as well as make him harder to disarm, he then used wind chakra to sharpen both blades. He leapt towards the jonin again, crossing the distance in the blink of an eye, but stopped in a shower of gravel right in front of Guy's kick.

"Ah, you learn fast!" the man shouted. Naruto gritted his teeth at how far the man was above his level – he'd not even seen the man start his kick before he'd stopped. The scroll had some really useful tips, foremost that 'before one has the measure of one's foe, one should seek to avoid potential attacks as much as real ones,' which had probably just stopped a one-hit KO.

The green man made a boar seal, then his arms dropped a half-inch in a sudden jerk. "To even the playing field, I have increased my weights to twice their normal weight!" he shouted. It seemed he was incapable of talking normally. Then Naruto noticed that Guy had large orange wraps that looked like leg-warmers on his forearms and shins. He shuddered to think how heavy they must be, if a jonin was wearing them, and then realised that this meant his opponent must be a taijutsu specialist – the weights would improve arm and leg speed, especially with Goken and similar styles, but tended to interfere with nin- and genjutsu.

While he was busy considering this, Guy flashed into action. He was still fast, but now he was at least visible. Naruto dropped to the ground, then tried to move in for a throw. Guy slipped past him and avoided his grip with a grace that implied years of practice. A flicker of thought from Naruto brought his water-chakra whip from his left sword out into a tendril that grasped Guy's back leg and the orange-clad ninja used it to launch himself at the larger man. His weapons came around in a devastating combo that Guy narrowly blocked with his nunchaku, then he moved in for the coup de grace – his weapons turned back into clones and, together with the original, delivered a barrage of blows at the spandex ninja. Guy grunted as he took a few hits, while his nunchaku-wielding hand dispelled a clone by punching straight through it and his free hand threw the second clone at the original Naruto, sending both flying away from him and buying him a few seconds to recover his stance.

Guy charged at the two remaining Narutos when a seal from the original one created a dozen more, which surrounded him. He knew exactly what Naruto was trying to do. The more his clones saw his combat style, the more he'd learn about how to counter it. He grinned, and pushed himself even harder to defeat each clone as quickly as possible. Even with just a dozen, he was able to tell that they grew better at predicting his moves and avoiding or blocking. The last one lasted a full ten seconds. Then only the original with one clone beside him was left. He turned to them, slid into a deeper stance and beckoned with his front hand

The Narutos charged at him again. One turned into a kunai that was hurled towards his feet, forcing him into the air. The remaining one then tried to attack him with a taijutsu barrage that Guy easily deflected before moving in for the finish, when suddenly the kunai transformed back and moved in to attack. Gai used his own kunai to jab it in the arm and dispel it but when he delivered a knock-out blow to the Naruto in front of him it dispelled, and the one he'd stabbed with a kunai placed a wind-enhanced blade against his throat. Suddenly, he understood – the kunai had been the original all along, and so he'd expected it to be gone when he stabbed it, and that moment where his guard had been down his foe had struck.

"Well done, your flames burn bright!" the jonin shouted, before suddenly flickering to behind the grinning Naruto. "You too can become a true genius of hard work, if you desire!"

The grin instantly disappeared off Naruto's face. How had the man managed to move so fast? There had to be more to it than the weights, as they could only strengthen your limbs, not make your whole body move faster. Well, whatever this guy's secret was, he appeared to have just offered Naruto a chance to sign up. And for speed like that, Naruto would do nearly anything.

"Yes, I want to learn from you how I too can become as strong and fast!" he shouted, enthusiasm seeming to pour off of him. He figured a display of sincerity would be most likely to get this man to help him.

"When you graduate from the academy, I willtake you into my team and train you if it is your wish", the jonin said, suddenly serious. "But remember this: my path is not one you can pick the parts from that you like the most. Once you start it, you must see it through. And that means one thing…"

Naruto waited with bated breath, wanting to hear the secret to becoming so powerful.

"Spandex!" Guy shouted loud enough to scare the nearby birds away, before he vanished in a whirl of leaves. Later, when Naruto's clones looked the man up in the archives, they would see him described as Konoha's blue beast, and the best taijutsu master amongst the jonin currently in the village.

-X-

It had been a year since Mizuki's betrayal, and Naruto had managed about 1000 hours of intense physical training and 1000 hours of chakra reserve training, and his clones had done about 350000 hours of chakra control exercises, jutsu training, sparring practice, and knowledge-gathering. The other students at the academy still thought he was the worst student of all, the teachers still hated and ignored him (except for Iruka, who occasionally bought him ramen), and the villagers had barely seen him in nearly a year since he rarely left the training grounds without a transformation jutsu in place.

And now, it was time for what he had trained for. The graduation exam that Naruto had decided would be the one he passed was on hand, and he was ready to completely blow everyone's expectations out of the water.

First up was the general fitness test. Each person had to run 1km as fast as possible, then do as many push-ups as they could in a minute, and finally they sparred against an instructor.

"I'm sorry Iruka," Naruto said as he helped his instructor up off the floor. "I didn't mean to throw you so hard."

Iruka laughed. "That'll teach me to get complacent – how did you get so strong?"

"You remember my training after the Mizuki incident?" Naruto asked. When Iruka nodded, he went on, "well, I kept at it for the rest of the year, I just got better at hiding it."

The look on Iruka's face was priceless. "Anyway, time for the next part of the exam!" Naruto yelled as he moved on to the written exam, which was a piece of cake as he'd had the equivalent of five years of studying for this part of the test.

The trap-setting part was fun, especially when Mizuki's replacement got covered in glitter when he tried to disarm Naruto's trap array. The man stomped off in a foul humour, while Naruto enjoyed his revenge on a man who openly detested him. He felt even happier when Iruka loudly congratulated him on his technique while the other man was listening, and pointed out that in a real combat situation Naruto's traps would have killed the instructor. Pointing out to a chunin that an academy student had just beaten them like that was quite humiliating, and that the man had done his best to avoid teaching proper trapping techniques to Naruto just made it even worse.

Stealth had always been one of Naruto's strengths, as a combination of the transformation jutsu and rapid, silent movement when necessary could go quite far, but having to avoid yourself from finding out your whereabouts was another step further. After thirty minutes the examiner simply gave Naruto full marks and asked him to come out, at which point he saw a blond head emerge not three feet away from him.

The genjutsu exam focussed on detecting and dispelling genjutsu, rather than casting them, and although the students could attempt one if they wished, it wouldn't get them many marks as it wasn't expected of them to have learnt any already, and those that had were normally taught by their clans. Naruto used his favourite genjutsu so far, a chakra-heavy technique from the scroll that shifted his image a little distance away in any direction he desired, while completely concealing the real him. When he used it no-one noticed until he picked a cup up that was half a metre away from where he seemed to be, then threw it so it fell through the image of him. He still hadn't quite got the more advanced form done yet, which made his image appear to be where he had been a few seconds in the past.

Ninjutsu was easy too, as a simple switching technique with a log followed by a transformation jutsu and creating several clones were the three easiest techniques Naruto could do.

As Naruto went home that evening, he considered what his classmates' reactions would be when they found out what his results were the next day. He idly realised that he'd spent so little time at the academy, compared with his training, that he had nearly no ties to any of the students. He hoped that whichever two were in his group weren't too upset at his sudden awesomeness, and that his new jonin teacher would know many new techniques.

-X-

**A/N**: So, time to select the groups. If I do have any pairings, and there's a girl in Naruto's group, he will be with whoever is in his group. And I'll leave it up to you readers who that is! Pick any one of the ninja in Naruto's graduation class, leave their name in a review, and the one with most mentions will be added to the group along with Lee and Naruto. And if it's a girl, she may end up paired with him!

Valid candidates are: Ino, Sakura, Hinata, Shikamaru, Choji, Sasuke, Kiba, or Shino.

Also, I'm not sure whether to have a pairing as I'm not sure I could write one very well, so no promises. And no outlandish requests for pairings please, like the Kyuubi – if I can't write a pairing for a normal girl, I definitely can't do one for a giant fox that hates all of Konoha and lives inside her love interest.


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto sat in the crowded classroom, watching his classmates and wondering who he'd have in his team for the next few years, although he felt that whoever it was would probably only hold him back. He'd have to see what he could do to push the others in his team to reach his level, or near it, as fast as possible. The survival of his group would be his priority, and the best way to achieve that was to increase everyone's power.

'The purpose of a team is to cover more abilities in more depth than a single shinobi can accomplish; for this reason it is unusual to have duplicates of abilities such as the Byukugan within a team.' If that was what a Hokage had written, then what was Naruto's ability and which two people would be a good match for him? Furthermore, what could he do to make sure his teammates were able to catch up to him quickly?

Naruto considered the strengths he'd shown. He'd been a good all-rounder, although he was mostly combat-focused. Maybe he'd get a team of trackers, or information gathering specialists, who he'd have to protect. That would have Kiba, Hinata, and/or Shino in it. Or if he were in a combat-based group, he'd have Sasuke, and… who else? There wasn't another combat-heavy member of the class that he could think of. Choji, Ino and Shikamaru would most likely be put on the same team, like their parents had been.

"Oi, everyone listen up!" Iruka shouted from the front of the room, interrupting Naruto's thoughts. "The top academy student for this year is…"

Naruto saw Sasuke sitting even straighter in his chair, ready for the award he thought he was about to get. Little did he know that Naruto, wanting to know how he'd done, had back sneaked into the Academy last night to see who'd gotten the best marks, and it hadn't been the Uchiha.

"…Naruto Uzumaki!"

Mutterings of disbelief spread out around the classroom as everyone stared at the 'dead last' who'd beaten the class genius, the last of the Uchiha clan. Sasuke himself simply had a twitching muscle along his jaw as he contained his emotions. The new star student himself simply leaned back and grinned happily, looking rather stupid in his orange jumpsuit.

Once everyone had calmed down again, Iruka continued. "I will now read out the teams. Listen carefully. Your team will consist of three genin and one jonin. Teams 1 to 6 are still in circulation from earlier years."

Naruto listened carefully, waiting to see who his future partners would be.

"Team 7: Sasuke Uchiha, Ino Yamanaka, and Neji Hyuga. Your jonin instructor will be Kakashi Hatake, who will meet you here." Naruto heard Sakura shouting about how her and Sasuke's love would prevail even in the face of Ino stealing her spot on his team. Ino was cheering and rubbing it in Sakura's face. Sasuke was trying to keep his emotions hidden, but didn't seem too happy to have a fangirl follow him. This was probably an infiltration/capture-interrogation team, with a Hyuga to find the opponent, an Uchiha to use genjutsu and Sharingan to pin the opponent and interrogate them later and a Yamanaka to take over the target's body and, later on, force out information, Naruto mused. Although… who was Neji? He wasn't anyone in their class, that was for sure. Then again, it wasn't important right now.

"Team 8: Shino Aburame, Sakura Haruno, and Kiba Inuzuka. Your instructor is Kurenai Yuuhi. She'll be along to collect you." Sakura's face fell further as she looked at her two team-mates, one of whom was sitting there emotionlessly with insects crawling over his face, while the other was playing with his dog. A tracking team for sure, although Sakura didn't really fit that theme. Then again, she didn't have any other strengths so it made some sense, and with Kurenai as a teacher and her excellent chakra control she'd probably end up as a genjutsu specialist. After the Guy incident, Naruto made a point of knowing who the possible jonin instructors were.

"Team 9: Hinata Hyuga, Naruto Uzumaki and Rock Lee. Your sensei is Might Guy, and he wants you to go to training area 27." Naruto's mind went into overdrive. Rock Lee was an unknown factor – he'd heard that Guy's old group had fallen apart, and it seemed that Lee was the one who'd stayed with him. To push Lee, he'd have to beat him then encourage him to train more, most likely. But Hinata was a clearer prospect. His regular transformed clone in the classroom had noticed pretty quickly that she seemed to have a strange fascination with him, although he wasn't sure what it was or why she had it.

However, it gave him a great way to motivate her to improve and become a powerful member of his team. He'd start by subtly convincing her to improve her fitness, then move on to increasing chakra capacity and chakra flow.

As soon as Iruka was finished talking, Naruto shouted 'Let's go!' at Hinata then leapt out of the open window, dashing off for the training area. From the classroom, he heard that Choji and Shikamaru were in the same group, although he didn't know who their team-mate or sensei was.

"Wait for me, Naruto!" Hinata shouted from behind him. She leapt out of the window too. So far, so good.

"Race me!" Naruto shouted, then he ran off at a speed just above what Hinata could manage. The two of them arrived at the training ground at a dead run, then collapsed gasping at the entrance, although Naruto's gasps seemed a little more theatrical than Hinata's, and didn't last as long.

Suddenly, Hinata shrieked and fell over backwards. In front of them a green spandex-clad man and a smaller clone of him had appeared. "Good day to you!" shouted the larger one. "I am your new jonin teacher. Call me Guy!"

"And I am your teammate Lee…" the smaller one said unenthusiastically.

"Let's get started!" Guy shouted. "First, we will train our fitness to the highest level!"

He turned and leapt off into the middle of the training ground, which was a large flat area with a running track, different sorts of training logs, and little else. He landed and started doing press-ups. "He wants us to join him," Lee said with a sigh. Naruto and Hinata hurried to their new teacher and started doing press-ups too.

Guy smiled at them. "Excellent, this will be a most youthful team! We will start off today with a light warm-up, then do some sparring. Let us do three sets of a hundred push-ups, two hundred sit-ups, ten laps of the 200m track, and five hundred blows on the training logs!"

Naruto and Hinata got to work. Naruto was impressed that their teacher was so motivated, and saw out of the corner of his eye that he appeared to be going five times as fast as he and Hinata could manage, and was doing sets of five times as many exercises to make up for it. Lee was apparently slouching back, doing as little as possible. By the time Naruto and Hinata had completed the first set, Hinata looked close to collapsing, Naruto was breathing heavily and Lee had only just finished the push-ups.

At that moment an ANBU landed next to Guy. "Come quick, it's an emergency!" he said, then disappeared again, leaping away to the centre of the village.

Guy turned and shouted back to his team, "Complete the exercises then train on your own until I get back!" He leapt away too, and soon the three of them were all alone in the training field.

As soon as Guy was out of sight, Lee stopped doing his sit-ups and lay down to have a rest. "Oi, you two, he's gone for now. There's no point to doing more exercises."

"What?" Naruto shouted. "Our jonin teacher told us to finish them, and you've just stopped? You must be the worst student ever!"

"Nah, I just don't feel like training today," Lee replied. "Besides, he's not gonna know. I'll start with the final set of punches in about ten minutes, then when he gets back I'll pretend to have finished. If you want I can show you how you can fake it too."

"I-I don't think that's a good idea…" Hinata said quietly. "I mean… surely there's a reason why we're doing this?"

Naruto quickly backed her up. "She's right. The exercises make us stronger, and slouching off all the time could even get you killed on a mission!"

Lee started chuckling, and it wasn't in a friendly way. "You're right, there's a reason for these exercises. Let me tell you about the real test for genin."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"Did you know that out of all the new genin teams, most will be sent back to the academy? Actually, most people who go back quit and become either civilians or maybe medical ninja. That's because there's another exam that the jonin teachers set to test their new teams, and Guy's test will be when he gets back. If you fail, it's bye-bye genin and hello Academy students. So, the purpose of these exercises is to exhaust you in preparation for the real exam. If you rest now, you improve your chances to become genin."

Naruto was deeply shocked, and Hinata looked like she was going to cry. As he saw this, he made a decision. Time to motivate his group as best he could! "No matter what, I'm not going back to the academy. I'm going to be Hokage one day, and protect the village as the strongest ninja! But I'll never going to reach my goals by being scared of physical exercise! I'm going to complete everything Guy-sensei set, and then I'll do even more, because I'm never giving up!" Naruto shouted.

"And you can't convince me otherwise," he finished more quietly.

"I-I agree with Naruto…" Hinata said shyly. "I won't give up either. Being a ninja is important to me, but I want to be a _proper_ ninja, like Naruto."

"Excellent!" came a shout from behind. As Naruto and Hinta spun around, they saw Guy appear from behind one of the training posts. "That was the exam, a test of your youthfulness, and you all pass! Well done Lee, for your acting!"

Naruto leapt up with a big grin, grabbed Hinata around the waist and swung her around, but put her down again quickly when he saw how red she was getting.

Lee leapt up. "I apologise for my previous unyouthful words, and I will now do one thousand squat-thrusts with two training posts on my back! I look forward to working with you as a most youthful team in the future!"

It seemed to Naruto and Hinata that they were on the craziest team of all, as they saw Lee start his promised exercises and Guy watched with tears in his eyes, then joined in. "You two should go and eat, we will continue training together in an hour!" he shouted at them. Naruto and Hinata walked off together, wondering at the antics of their instructor and fellow student.

"So, do you wanna get some food together now?" Naruto asked Hinata, who went red yet again and stammered out a 'yes'. He grabbed her hand and dragged her to his favourite restaurant, the Ichiraku ramen stand.

-X-

Later that evening, Naruto considered the day's events. Hinata had been easy to motivate, as he'd predicted, and Lee had had problems with being _over_-motivated, so there wasn't a lot he had to do to push the others to improve. It was nice to have an instructor for training, as it helped him to improve more and he had his mistakes corrected.

The spars had been good, although Lee had been faster than anyone Naruto had ever seen. He'd not even stood a chance – the spandex boy had taken him down in less time than it took to blink. Apparently, he'd been wearing weights, which could be placed to increase speed as well as strength, although only Goken could be used in combat after while of wearing them. Guy had padded him and Hinata with 'a few small weights', which were about as heavy as they were, although that was the highest he could go without inhibiting his combat style, and likewise for Hinata – her Juken would suffer if she wore too many weights.

Naruto quickly made a clone and gave it the task of coming up with a name for his taijutsu style, while he went back to thinking about how to improve himself and his team. Obviously he could teach Hinata some ninjutsu, and keep practicing them himself, but he didn't have an easy source for new skills other than his sensei and his secret scroll. He'd have to see what he could do about that. Lee would keep increasing at his own rate, and there was little Naruto could do to help him, as Lee's taijutsu was both different to his own and more advanced at the moment.

"Ultimate Uzumaki fighting technique!" his clone called out excitedly.

"Nope, too long and pretentious." Naruto could always try to capture ninjutsu scrolls from other ninja while on a mission, or invent his own, but neither method was time-efficient or reliable. Although he could try to get a clone into the Hokage tower and quickly memorise some scrolls for him. That would be worth a try, and he could get a variety that way. Besides, if it went wrong and he was caught, he could play it off as a prank and the Sandaime seemed to have a soft spot for him so he wouldn't be punished too badly.

"Maelstrom taijutsu style!" the clone shouted again, sounding even more excited this time.

"Yeah, I'll go with that until I get something better, I guess." As soon as Naruto was finished talking, his clone dispelled. That was one task sorted. Now, how to get into the tower? It wasn't necessary for a while yet, as Naruto currently lacked the time to learn a bunch of new jutsu. He had more than enough to deal with catching up to his new sensei and team-mate, and getting his other team-mate up to his level.

-X-

**A/N**: And that's chapter 5 done! I liked my idea for the test, but I'm not sure I wrote it down very well. Please let me know what you thought of it, I really enjoy reviews – even just a "Nice chapter" can make me happy! Also, tell me whether you want a NaruHina pairing or not – right now it could go either way, depending on how many people want it and whether I can write it well, although it's still a few chapters off.


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto ducked a sweeping kick and launched himself forwards, under an elbow strike. He lashed out with a double-punch combo, only to see it batted away by his opponent. He blocked a punch that nevertheless sent him sprawling onto his back. A flip sent him back onto his feet, and a swift kick forced his opponent back again. He darted to the left then doubled back, trying to land a blow. A swift step placed him behind the other boy, but as he went to deliver decisive blow his target twisted away, taking a glancing strike to the chest at the same time as Naruto took an elbow to the face.

"How very youthful!" Guy shouted. "You almost had me that time!"

Naruto grunted. "I'll know I'm improving when you stop doubling your weights during our sparring sessions." He'd noticed over the last few sessions that while his taijutsu ability was at worst average, he was still behind other genin – especially Lee – who focussed more heavily on it. His kenjutsu was better, but not by a lot. His focus was more on longer-range techniques, and he was definitely one of, if not _the_, best ninjutsu user in his graduating class, but he was starting to run out of sources of new techniques.

Ninjutsu could be learnt from scrolls, but they were rare and highly valued. Most clans would possess some with their clan jutsu and some generic skills that were of use, and Konohagakure had some in the Shinobi Archives, but the powerful village-owned scrolls were kept in the Hokage tower, like the scroll of seven seals – not that Naruto had seen any seals on it.

The other ways to gain ninjutsu were from a teacher who already knew it and was willing to pass it on, which was unlikely in Guy's case, as he knew nearly nothing apart from Konoha's strongest taijutsu – or many upper-ranked ninja invented one or two of their own. This had the benefits of being customised, generally better understood by the user, and harder for an enemy to predict or understand, but it took a long time and a lot of skill to create even a single new jutsu.

And then there were techniques to steal existing jutsu by either directly copying them (with Sharingan), analysing and later attempting to replicate them (with Byakugan), or simply inventing a jutsu identical to one that you'd seen someone else use (most ninjas' only way, and barely quicker than creating a new one).

"Concentrate!" Guy's voice called out as he launched a strike at Naruto's head, which was narrowly dodged. "You won't improve unless you let your youthful flames shine bright!"

Naruto settled into a deeper stance again, and got ready for another round. His half-hour with Guy would be up soon, and as he'd already done his time with Hinata and Lee this morning, they'd be moving on to physical exercises.

-X-

Hinata ducked a high kick, and moved in for a Juken strike on Lee's knee, but he pulled back too quickly for her to follow. It seemed she was still too slow to have a decent chance at landing a strike on Lee, although she thought that without her weights she might have a chance. Unless he removed his weights too. She shuddered to think of how much he must be carrying by now.

Any further thoughts were put away for the moment as Lee used a flying kick to get in close. Hinata swayed back and nearly touched his leg, when she was forced to roll backwards to avoid a haymaker going straight for her face. Lee was definitely much stronger than her, and a lot faster too, but she'd managed to catch up a little in the two weeks she'd been on this team. She hoped she could impress Naruto with her increased speed and strength – after all, he'd told her that he admired her drive to improve.

-X-

Team Guy had a pretty steady schedule. Normally, there would be training from seven in the morning until noon with a single ten-minute break for a small snack, then they'd have an hour for lunch. In the afternoon the team would do three or four D-rank missions for some experience and pay, which were very easy with Naruto's clones, Lee's strength, and Hinata's vision. Menial work, hauling, and finding lost pets – that was about all they'd been assigned so far. It was no wonder, Naruto thought on his first day, that there were so many missing-nin, if this was all the ninja life consisted of.

In the evenings, the whole team would eat together and then train for two more hours, although this was mostly more sparring to get used to the weights that they never took off.

None of that sounded too bad if you described it to someone else. But the fact of the matter was that the amount of exercises was insane, there were never enough breaks, and all of it was done with enough weights to pin a civilian to the ground. Naruto was willing to bet that about half of his classmates, if pushed into this position, would have quit by the end of the first day.

However, tomorrow would be different. In the morning, Team 9 would be having a practice spar with Team 7, which had Sasuke, Hinata's cousin Neji, and Ino on it, while their sensei was a jonin called Kakashi Hatake, also known as Kakashi of the Sharingan and an ex-ANBU. Not that all that information on Kakashi was publically available, but if you knew where to look and how to read between the lines, you could find out a lot of a ninja's less well-kept secrets. Most relevantly, however, Kakashi was Guy's 'eternal rival'.

Naruto pitied the man a little at the thought of regularly being challenged by Guy, but it appeared that if Guy and Kakashi were about equally strong, that said a lot about Guy in combat – matching up to a man with Sharingan was never easy.

Well, tomorrow the two jonin instructors would compare teams and Naruto fully intended to make Guy proud. He'd hopefully prove that his, Lee and Hinata's work ethic was better than Sasuke and Neji's natural talents. Ino he could forget about, as she had nothing of use other than the Yamanaka clan's mind-possession techniques, which she was probably terrible at based on how much time she spent being a Sasuke fangirl. Then again, Sasuke had been well above average in the academy but that still put him below Naruto.

Time to put his most over-used skill to use as a way to gather ideas. A hundred clones sat down and started planning strategy together, to get ready for the battle tomorrow.

-X-

"So, loser, come to feel the power of an Uchiha?" Sasuke asked. Naruto didn't even spare him a glance as he looked at the unknown in the battle, Neji Hyuga. The top student from last year, the Hyuga prodigy… Hinata had warned all of them that he could be ruthless, and Lee had replied that he had yet to hit Neji solidly in battle.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you, loser!" Sasuke shouted.

"Sorry," Naruto replied without looking away from Neji. "I'm busy considering how strong the Hyuga is and you're nowhere near his or my level – I might get to you later if I have time to waste."

Neji frowned at him. "You're a team of rejects and failures, and there's no way any of you could ever beat me."

"Hey, is it true that the Hyuga men use their Byakugan to peek at women?" Naruto quipped back at him, then watched in satisfaction as the white-eyed boy glared at him with murder in his eyes.

Just as the Uchiha and Hyuga were about to start shouting at the orange-clad ninja, Kakashi and Guy appeared to diffuse the situation and start the training battle. Kakashi started talking first, probably to avoid hearing the word 'youthful'. "So, everyone, here are the rules. No killing or maiming – we're all Konoha ninja, and we're all on the same side. Secondly, the first team to have no members left capable of fighting will have lost. Individual members of a team can give up but they can't forfeit for the group."

After Kakashi had finished talking, Guy stepped up. "Remember, be friendly, and may the fires of your youth burn bright! Let the battle commence!" The two jonin leapt away, leaving six genin staring at each other over an open space.

"Remember the formation everyone!" Neji called. He and Sasuke shifted to both sides of Ino, who started to form seals.

"Move!" Naruto shouted and his team leapt apart to avoid Ino's jutsu. If she hit someone, she could make them forfeit and thus beat them without needing to fight. The Yamanaka clan were a dangerous foe to have, although Ino herself was quite weak.

Lee charged forwards at Sasuke and Neji, who activated his Byakugan. Ino had slumped forwards, but then she sat up again. "Dammit, I missed," she told her team-mates.

"Plan B," Neji replied. Sasuke leapt forwards to counter Lee's charge and was sent flying by a well-placed kick. Neji and Lee started exchanging blows, but Lee was at a disadvantage as he couldn't block blows very easily without risking taking a Juken strike. Hinata joined him in attacking Neji, while Naruto silently snuck up on Ino and knocked her out with a well-placed strike. Sasuke came charging back in at him, but Hinata spun away from Neji and hit him with four strikes in a row, taking him to the floor, while Naruto made four clones to distract Neji long enough for Lee to pull back.

"Nice one!" Lee called to his team-mates. He'd played his part of diverting Neji and temporarily removing Sasuke perfectly, and Naruto's strike on Ino had also been well executed.

However, Hinata had attacked Sasuke of her own initiative, which was out of character for her to say the least. "Nice move on Sasuke there, Hinata, you really nailed him good!" Naruto shouted, wanting to encourage her as that had been a textbook disable. She blushed a little, which he was starting to get used to, and nodded thanks at him.

"Let's deal with the last one now!" Naruto shouted, as he moved forwards. So far, he'd not revealed his newly-named 'Maelstrom' style, as his clones had used a basic Goken style. But now it was time to see whether the time he'd invested in this had been worth it; whether a genius with the Byakugan could see through it or not.

Neji charged at him, seeking to disable at least one opponent before he was outnumbered, and moved to strike at Naruto's head, when an invisible fist buried itself into his side. He fell back and tried to recover, but took another hit to the face before he could get his guard up. By the time he had detected and dispelled the genjutsu, he'd already been hit a dozen times, but now he was ready to take the fight back at his opponent. He could see Hinata and Lee moving in to support Naruto, but by the time they got there it would all be over. Neji stepped forward into an attack, seeing Naruto's lack of counter-attack preparations. He struck.

And fell.

Naruto rubbed his fist. He really hadn't expected it to work _that _well, but he wasn't about to complain. Neji would be out cold for a few minutes, and he'd have quite a headache when he woke up, but walking straight into a blow to the head was quite a foolish thing to do.

"And it looks like a victory for Team Guy!" Guy shouted at the top of his lungs. "The power of youthful training has triumphed yet again!" Kakashi quietly sighed to himself.

"So, I'll make sure none of mine are permanently injured, and we'll have a rematch in two weeks, OK?" he said. At that moment, there was a groan from behind him, and Neji stood up.

"What… happened?" he asked groggily.

Naruto smirked at him. "Well, the team of 'rejects and losers' stomped your sorry asses. Looks like you're not quite as all-powerful as you thought you were. Anyway, it's time for us to go, since we've finished up here." With a last grin he leapt off back to the group training area, followed by the rest of Team 9.

Kakashi sighed. Neji was bad enough usually, but now he'd be even more insufferable. Well, maybe he'd stop the fate drivel as he doubted the Hyuga would want to say it was his 'fate' to lose to Uzumaki. He only hoped the rest of his team wouldn't take it too hard. Then again, Sasuke took anything not going his way as a personal affront. And right now, in terms of combat, Ino was only really there in terms of combat. Maybe her poor showing in this would change that. He leapt down to wake up the two unconscious members of his team.

-X-

"Well, our youthful strategy worked!" Lee said. "Although I doubt we can surprise them again in the same way. Speaking of which, what did you do to Neji to hit him, Naruto? I know from experience that he can predict blows, and then avoid them."

Hinata looked at Naruto too. This had been bothering her as well. Although she couldn't predict people's moves yet with her Byakugan, it was an important part of the Hyuga clan's power to be one of the strongest when it came to taijutsu. A style that could avoid that was dangerous, although she'd been told repeatedly that it was also impossible.

"I call it the Maelstrom style! I invented it myself!" Naruto said proudly.

Lee and Hinata looked at him a little nonplussed. "So, Maelstrom from Uzumaki, I guess?" Hinata said first. She'd become a lot less shy over the past few weeks, and it showed in their group discussions.

"Yup," Naruto said. "I made it by fighting my clones. If they can't predict their own style's moves, then other people can't either, I figured, and it seems to have worked. However, I doubt it would work again on him. The surprise factor was a large part of it, and my genjutsu weakened and distracted him enough for me to finish it with a single blow." He raised a calming hand towards Lee before he could say anything. "And I can't teach it to you, Lee, because you use so many weights. Your current style is probably better in the long run anyway, because you'd have to untrain your weights if you wanted to use a non-Goken style."

Guy landed in the middle of them. "Nice work everyone! Now let's train some more! Five hundred push-ups each!"

"Yes Guy-sensei! I will do them all and then one thousand more to become even stronger and more youthful!" Lee shouted.

-X-

**A/N**: And that's a wrap! I originally intended to have the next chapter as part of this one, but then it got too long so I thought I'd upload this before I finished the other chapter.

So, what do you think? I figured that Hinata would have improved a fair bit by now from the training, and she's more motivated and less shy, while Sasuke doesn't have his Sharingan yet and has had Kakashi as a teacher so far. I figured the only real opponent for the 'youthful' team was Neji, and using a forbidden genjutsu and a new (and unexpected) taijutsu style would be enough for Naruto to win, especially since he's not really seen as a threat by anyone yet.

However, losing to Guy will probably motivate Kakashi and his team a fair bit in the future.


	7. Chapter 7

Soon, Naruto had spent a month with his new team. He was stronger and faster, but he'd also improved his taijutsu and kenjutsu due to the daily sparring. Because of his group training, he couldn't have groups of clones train different techniques so he only worked around a hundred clones to improve his chakra control, effectively increasing his chakra capacity by a quarter. He'd also dropped the transformation that usually hid his muscles, so he cut quite an intimidating figure, except for the garish orange jumpsuit which was still hideous.

Hinata had improved too. Gone was the constant stuttering and the occasional fainting. She was still quiet and shy, but in a quirky rather than incapacitating way. Her strength and speed had increased, and she'd added some Goken techniques – mostly kicks and knee-strikes – to her Juken style.

Lee was his usual self; he was still loud, passionate, and _extremely_ motivated. He had bonded quickly with his new team-mates, which led to them sitting together that evening in a small ramen bar that Naruto had occasionally visited before, as it was one of the few places that he could eat without being the centre of attention, called Ichiraku's ramen bar.

"So then, no joke, Kiba trips Shino who falls into his sensei's chest! Then Sakura, his team-mate from before, starts throwing kunai at him, he's running around trying not to get hit and protesting that it was an accident, Kiba's pissing himself laughing and Kurenai's blushing traffic-light red." Naruto finished his tale with a triumphant smirk.

Hinata simply sat and looked shocked, while Lee added, "I heard when Asuma-sensei found out he wanted to kick Kiba's ass, but he couldn't prove it was him. I believe that Asuma-sensei has youthful feelings for Kurenai-sensei," he grinned widely, "and Guy-sensei agrees, although Kurenai-sensei doesn't seem to know." Lee had a warped sense of humour that he hid under his constant youthful appearance. Much like Guy-sensei, he was more intelligent than he let on.

Naruto started laughing really hard now, "…so that's why Kiba looked so scared earlier! Imagine, molesting a jonin who's also got another jonin interested in her, even if Shino was the one who got a faceful instead of Kiba."

"What the hell are you being so noisy about?" Sasuke said from behind the three of them. "I'd have thought a team of losers like you would want to avoid drawing attention to yourselves." His two team-mates were nearby, trying to look like they weren't listening in.

"Well," Hinata started, surprised at her own boldness, "I'm the weakest member of our team and I took you down without taking a single hit, so if we're losers then what are you?"

Sasuke's face darkened as Neji and Ino moved up next to him. "You took me by surprise, and besides, I was challenging Naruto! That was hardly a fair encounter."

Lee looked up at him. "Well, it is written in the Ninja code that Rule #34 is 'There is no unfair advantage for a ninja, only an advantage'."

Ino burst in, "Yeah, well, you shouldn't talk to Sasuke like that, he'll be better than all of you once his Sharingan awaken!"

"Well, I think that boasting about your crush's unawakened bloodline is a very roundabout way of trying to prove us weak." Naruto spoke up for the first time.

"Well, what would you know, Naruto? You don't even have a clan or family," Ino sneered, right before Hinata took her down with a single well-aimed blow, an angry glint in her eyes that none of them had seen before.

Neji, ready to avenge his team-mate, stepped in at his cousin from behind and knocked her down too, then took a kick to the head from an angry Naruto that dropped him, while Sasuke put a haymaker onto Lee from behind. Lee spun around three times from the force of the blow before slumping over and starting to snore.

Naruto and Sasuke faced each other, fists clenched, when Hinata heaved herself up again behind him and dropped him with a pair of strikes to the head, before toppling over to rejoin the others in unconsciousness.

Naruto dragged everyone out of the way, while he processed the fact that his team-mates had just gotten into a fight with another genin team over him being insulted. He'd never had this kind of bond before, but he felt a burning desire deep in his heart to protect his team.

He quickly splashed some water on Hinata and Lee's faces to wake them, then they walked back to the ramen stand, leaving Team 7 to wake up on their own.

-X-

The next evening, as Naruto walked home with a burning in his muscles from the (over-the-top as usual) training, he noticed a ninja trying to follow him stealthily. However, he wasn't quite quiet enough. As Naruto rounded a corner to take him out of sight, he quickly and silently made a clone who performed a transformation into a kunai, which the original grabbed and hid up his sleeve. Prepared for a fight, Naruto stepped back the other way to confront his tail.

Sasuke Uchiha stepped out of the shadows and stood in front of him. "Fight me!" he barked then leapt at Naruto, who casually blocked his strike and threw him into a wall.

"Why? What do you hope to gain?" he asked. Of all the people to follow him home, Sasuke had been the last person he expected, due to his overbearing Uchiha pride. A public challenge, yes. A brawl in a back alley? Definitely not something usual for him.

Sasuke seemed to be a mixture of angry and worried. "I want to prove that I'm stronger than you are. We didn't exchange blows in our last matches, so I'm going to show to you now that the Uchiha are the best!" He didn't seem too confident in his statement, though.

Naruto shrugged and threw his kunai. As it slammed into the wall behind Sasuke, it transformed back into a clone and knocked him out with a single kick. He didn't even know what hit him. "Well, that was easy," Naruto said. He looked around. He couldn't exactly leave the other boy lying here on his own, but he didn't know where else to take him. He shrugged and slung the Uchiha over his shoulder, then leapt off towards the nearest training area that was free for genin to use.

-X-

Sasuke woke up to find himself lying on his back in a training field. He sat up and groaned as he felt the large lump on the back of his skull. The last thing he remembered was Naruto missing him with a kunai, then… then he'd been hit from behind via an unknown jutsu and woke up here. He gritted his teeth. His original plan had been to silence the nagging doubts he had about his own strength by beating Naruto, but it looked like he was so far behind the other boy he'd been taken out with a single move.

That meant he'd have to take the second possible course of action he'd considered before coming here. He really didn't want to, but he wouldn't allow anyone to be stronger than him. He looked over to see Naruto sitting with his back to him, apparently deep in thought.

Sasuke stood up, and stumbled towards him, careful to stay behind him. It would be easier to do what he had to without seeing his face, the face of another genin as old as himself, a face he'd seen often enough at the Academy. Three steps away, he stopped and fell onto his knees. He couldn't force himself to do it.

But then again, to kill Itachi, he'd have to be prepared to do anything. He bent his head down and did one of the hardest things in his life so far. "Will you train me?" he asked Naruto.

-X-

Naruto turned around to look at Sasuke. "What? Why?" he asked, completely confused.

"You're better than me," Sasuke replied, and Naruto could tell that saying those words was twisting a knife in Sasuke's soul. "I want you to show me how to be as strong as you."

Naruto considered it. Training Sasuke would strengthen him, and therefore by extension his team. But he could also use it to get some advantages for himself. "Ok, but let's make an agreement first. I will teach you some techniques to improve your strength, speed, chakra reserves, and chakra flow, as well as some jutsu, and in exchange you will let me learn some jutsu from your clan library – no clan techniques, not that I could use them without Sharingan anyway, just some of the many jutsu the Uchiha are bound to have copied with their eyes. Also, when you awaken your Sharingan you can steal jutsu too, right?"

Sasuke looked surprised at how quickly Naruto had accepted, but shocked at the price. "Well, it's a little more complicated than that. A fully awakened Sharingan can reflect any technique, but to learn it so that it can be used later is harder and takes a little time. I don't simply learn a jutsu by watching someone use it – copying techniques is a skill, just like any other."

"Well, there may come a time when I ask you for a specific jutsu. If I do, I'd like you to get it for me if you can." Naruto considered how to make the offer more palatable. Getting his hands on some rare and powerful jutsu would be great, but to get Sasuke to agree, he'd have to be careful. Flattery might help.

"As I don't have the Sharingan bloodline, I can't do it myself. This is something that only you could do, so I have to ask you for help." Emphasising that Sasuke was the only person who could do this would make him feel important, and saying Sasuke would help him in return made it more of an exchange between equals.

The Uchiha was torn. He could either let Naruto enjoy some of his Sharingan's effects by proxy as well as teach him some jutsu from his family's archives, or he could continue getting stronger at his current rate. Neither option appealed to him, but to kill Itachi he'd do nearly anything. There was only one choice that would help him in his vengeance, and no matter how little he liked the terms he felt forced to accept.

"Fine, I accept. My team are going on our first C-ranked mission tomorrow, and I'm not sure when we'll be back, so we can't do much now," Sasuke said.

Naruto frowned for a moment. "We have a deal. When you get back, we'll start properly. By the way, what are you doing in your mission? We haven't had any C-ranks yet."

"We're guarding a bridge-builder from Wave country from bandits until he completes his bridge. Ino was being pretty annoying about only having D-ranks, so we asked Kakashi for a C-rank as a group. He values team-work so much that he said we could do one because we'd decided it as a team," Sasuke gave a snort. "Ino managed to bug us enough over the past week that Neji and I finally gave in this morning."

Naruto laughed. "I can only imagine how bad it must be to have a fangirl on your team, especially one as annoying as Ino. Anyway, I'll teach you a training technique before you go that you can practice during your mission if you have any breaks."

Sasuke looked excited. This was the first step to catching up with Naruto, which was the first step to catching up with Itachi. He watched as Naruto walked over to a tree, and simply kept going, walking up the trunk and along the bottom of a branch. "How do you do that?" he asked incredulously.

"Focus chakra on your feet. It has to be a constant amount, and if it's too much you'll fly off, but if you use too little you won't grip properly. This helps you control your chakra. By the time I could do it perfectly without thinking, I'd effectively tripled my chakra reserves because I used them much more effectively."

The Uchiha looked at Naruto, then the tree. He ran at it, then got one step up, two steps, but on the third step he launched himself back and off the tree. He could see that to go up twenty steps would be hard, and to do it without conscious thought would be harder.

"This works on trees, buildings, cliffs, and pretty much any other fairly flat surface. The next step is water-walking, but we can cover that later when you get back."

Sasuke nodded. "Ok, come with me and I'll lend you a scroll from our library. There's one technique where I want to see whether you can master it by the time I get back." The first jutsu an Uchiha was taught, the Great Fireball technique, should test whether Naruto had the abilities to match his clan.

-X-

**A/N**: I wasn't sure about this, but there are so many things I can do plot-wise if Naruto and Sasuke are at least acquaintances. Also, this might seem a little out of character, but I do think that if Naruto can easily beat Sasuke he's going to want to find out how he did it and then learn that himself. I see Sasuke as very focussed, and he'll do nearly anything to reach his goals, so especially in the heat of the moment this is exactly the sort of decision he'd take.

Please review, I really enjoy reading any comments even if they're as short as 'Another good chapter'. I can be bribed with reviews to update faster.


	8. Chapter 8

After Team 7 left, the next few days were normal training days for Naruto and his team-mates. After their usual exercises and sparring in the morning, they were able to complete 5 D-ranked missions in a row, a personal best and also the record for their graduating class so far. Naruto was so used to thinking in clones by now that he would have around half a dozen do various tasks to help him get ready each morning, and would almost automatically create at least twenty whenever he had a spare moment to train.

Lee and Hinata had been surprised at first, but after the time they'd spent working with Naruto so far, they'd started to simply treat it as a quirk of his, like Lee's insane motivation, beyond all others – when Naruto and Hinata limped home after a hard day's training, Lee would spend several more hours doing strength and speed exercises – and Hinata's Byakugan, which made it impossible for anything to stay hidden around her. Naruto and Lee didn't like thinking about how she could accidentally see them – or even worse, Guy – naked when she used them at first, but now they barely noticed.

The evening was spent discussing their tasks for tomorrow while eating Ichiraku's ramen. Guy had declared that 'their youthfulness was overflowing, and more than sufficient for a mission of the next level.' Lee loudly agreed and then quietly explained to his two team-mates that their jonin teacher had just told them they were ready for a C-ranked mission.

All three were excited: Lee hadn't done a C-ranked with his new team yet, and for Naruto and Hinata it would be their first ever. None of them were sorry to stop the D-ranked missions, although Naruto privately understood and approved of their purpose – making sure ninja were committed before they went into potentially life-threatening situations. They also paid enough that doing 4 per week could normally pay the rent for a flat and buying some necessities, allowing the genin – now technically adults – to afford their own homes.

Most of all, though, Naruto wanted to show off his new jutsu – the Great Fireball was very impressive and very destructive. He'd also noticed a quirk when training it. One time, a clone that was making a fireball had coughed when releasing it. A focussed lance of fire had been forced forth in a tight beam of incredible heat, melting through the concrete of the training area. After a few hours of practice with his clones, his new technique (which he'd called the Dragon's Lance, since he'd managed to shape the burst into a vaguely dragon-like form) was completed and ready for use.

-X-

Naruto awoke the next day full of hope for what the day could bring. He and Guy had an extensive conversation about getting everyone into spandex suits, but as Hinata had been adamant that she wouldn't wear one and Naruto didn't want to make her feel left out, he refused all of his sensei's offers for the suits, no matter the supposed benefits.

However, the morning didn't go to plan. Team 9 and their sensei had barely arrived at the Hokage's office to receive their mission when a chunin messenger burst in, shouting about a problem with Team 7's mission to Wave. Apparently a missing-nin named Zabuza of the seven swordsmen had ambushed them. They'd fought him off, but suspected he was still alive and had an accomplice. Ino Yamanaka had sent the message, believing them to all be in mortal danger.

Guy heard the news, turned and snapped off a flurry of hand-signals to the Hokage – Naruto had heard that ANBU members and ex-members did this sometimes to save time, as a matter of habit and ingrained reflexes – and promptly leapt out of the window with a hurried 'I shall return soon, my youthful students!' called over his shoulder to his team before he was out of sight. None of his students had had time to do more than blink in shock at hearing of the danger their rival team was in.

The Hokage sighed. "Your sensei has gone to their aid. He is the fastest-travelling ninja currently available, and he and Kakashi together rival even the power of one of the legendary Three. Team 7 should be safe. However, he didn't have time to arrange anything for you to do today, so you should take the rest of the day off. I'll arrange something for tomorrow."

Naruto left a clone behind to talk to the Sandaime when his group walked out of the Hokage tower, dejected at the sudden disappearance of their sensei and the postponement of their C-rank mission. The clone started to discuss what they could do in terms of training until Guy got back, while the team-mates and friends discussed what they'd do today.

Lee wanted to run what he called a 'Ninja marathon', a long journey that Konoha ninja sometimes took to train themselves which included climbing several cliffs, traversing a tunnel network, and running a total of over 100km. It was normally only attempted by ANBU and jonin who either were insane or had to do it for a punishment.

Naruto and Hinata quickly declined his offers to join him, Hinata saying she wanted to spend some time with her sister as she hadn't seen her for more than 30 mins at a time for over a month. Naruto decided to see what Kiba was up to, since he'd heard that Kurenai started training them at noon at the earliest, and gave them frequent days off.

Today would be a day of rest and recuperation, as well as some time off from his busy training schedule, Naruto vowed.

-X-

Kiba was away when Naruto called at his house, but his sister called out for him to come in. He and Akamaru were on a walk, she said, and she wasn't sure when he'd be back, but Naruto could wait inside if he wanted.

Naruto hadn't been in Kiba's house before, since both boys were too hyperactive to spend much time inside, a fact that Iruka could attest to. The ground floor was spacious, with white walls covered in pictures of clan members with their dogs, and a tiled floor, while the upper floor had bedrooms which were each decorated in an individual style.

Hana, Kiba's sister, was the only one home, so Naruto was soon talking animatedly with her. She was a slim girl with her soft brown hair tied back in a ponytail and red fangs tattooed on her cheeks. Her room was a stark contrast to her fierce appearance, decorated mostly with soft greens and blues, and there was a small TV in the corner.

"If it's not too rude, why is a pretty and capable-looking ninja like you lying in bed so late in the morning?" Naruto asked her, after she'd told him to sit down on the bed. Looking around, he couldn't see a chair or desk in the room – it seemed to be mostly for sleeping.

"Well, I have a leg injury but it's mostly better. I got it in a fight with an Iwa-ninja on my last mission – border patrol. They like to test our strength occasionally, but the one who fought me came off much worse in our exchange." She bared her teeth and snarled a little. "My partners, the Hamairu brothers, are still healing though." Then she smiled and arched her back, and the anger was suddenly gone as fast as it had come, although her stretching pushed her breasts against her T-shirt. Naruto was suddenly aware of how close he was sitting and that she was only wearing shorts and a too-tight shirt.

"Everything okay?" she asked him with a small smile. "I tell you what, move a bit closer so we can both see the television and we can watch something." She was a little surprised as she felt Naruto's muscles push up against her, and registered just how sculpted his chest looked. Then she registered how flushed his face looked. With a wicked smirk she leant over him to grab the remote, in the process showing him again how well-endowed she was. This rather cute-looking boy with the exotic whisker-marks on his face might be a more interesting way to pass the time, she mused.

"Wha-what do you want to watch?" he spluttered. In reply, she turned on the TV and flipped through the channels, deciding on a cooking program. Due to Naruto's complete lack of interest in daytime TV, he and Hana were soon back to chatting about their shared love of the colour orange, although Hana regretfully told him that she'd had to stop wearing it when she'd become a chunin. Just then, the program ended and a music show started, diverting Naruto's attention again. He was almost like a puppy, constantly distracted by any noise, movement or smell, she mused.

As some quiet music played, Hana decided she'd had enough chatting and was looking for some slightly more indepth interaction, which she was short on after nearly a week stuck on her family's couch. She reached around his shoulders Naruto's shoulders and pulled him close. He looked at her, confused, and she leant in and kissed him. He was still with shock for a second, then his teenage hormones kicked in and he started returning her kiss.

-X-

Ten minutes later, Kiba burst exuberantly into the house and rushed up the stairs, Akamaru at his heels. "I smell… Naruto!" he shouted. "Why are you here, don't you have insane training to do?" Naruto swiftly stood up and went to meet him, breathless, but inside he was grinning from ear to ear. This was a _very_ good way to pass the time.

Hana quickly hissed from her position on her bed, "Act natural!"

"Um… it was cancelled, Guy-sensei's gone off to do stuff for the next few days. I came to see if you wanted to hang out for a bit." Naruto replied to Kiba.

Hana sat up a little and looked at Kiba through the doorway of her room. "We had a chat while we waited for you to get back." Her brother didn't catch Naruto smiling at her, and her wink back. "Anyway, I guess you two will head off now."

"Yeah," Kiba said, "I was thinking about showing Naruto this great new spot I found." He nudged his friend. "Just wait until you see it, it will blow your mind."

"Okay, let's go then!" Naruto said. "See you later, Hana!" As the two friends left the house, Hana smiled. Kissing a cute-looking boy was a much nicer use of her resting time than watching television. Maybe he'd come by again, or she could keep an eye out for someone else good-looking.

-X-

Kiba, Akamaru and Naruto were crouched down in some bushes behind a tall wooden fence. "Here we are," Kiba said quietly. "Keep your voice down, and look through the hole here." As Naruto peered through, he could feel a trickle of blood run out of his nose. The women's baths were on the other side! Even more importantly, none of them were wearing much, if anything. After what happened that morning, he was more affected than he'd expected. Ten seconds later, Kiba pulled him away and took his own turn peeking. Suddenly, he took a deep sniff.

"Naruto?" he asked.

"What?"

Kiba looked at him strangely. "Why do you smell like my sister?"

Naruto suddenly looked incredibly guilty, something Kiba noticed immediately. 'Uh oh…' he thought as his friend jumped at him with a snarl.

The women in the baths were suddenly shocked to hear a voice loudly shouting about betrayal of friendship right outside, but soon ignored it. After all, if anyone were trying to peer in, they wouldn't be so loud, right?

-X-

Meanwhile, the Sandaime had made a shadow clone of his own to deal with the Naruto-clone while he went back to official business.

Naruto was loudly complaining about missing training. "If I keep having gaps in my training like this, how am I meant to make Hokage anytime soon?"

"Look, it's only for a week, two weeks tops. Just train on your own and do some D-ranks with your team." The Sandaime-clone already looked exhausted from arguing with Naruto.

"How about getting some other jonins to teach us? One per day, we could learn a lot of new stuff, and you could see who's suited for training genin teams next year," Naruto tried for the third time. Then he had an idea. "Besides, you could use it to keep your resting jonin busy. I mean I doubt that, say, Guy would rest as long as he should if he were injured, but if you told him to train someone then he'd have to do less strenuous stuff."

The Sandaime sighed loudly. Naruto had a point, and it was easier to agree than to continue arguing with the orange-clad boy. "Okay, I'll do that then. Go to your normal training ground tomorrow with your team and I'll send someone along, either jonin or chunin."

As the Hokage's clone quickly dispelled before Naruto could ask him for anything else, the Naruto-clone quickly sneaked a look at the contents of a nearby scroll. Excellent, a lightning jutsu! Swiftly memorising it and dispelling, the real Naruto's eyes widened for a moment, although he was careful not to move much and reveal his hiding place amongst some thick bushes. He pulled out a scroll and wrote down the jutsu's key components before he forgot.

Meanwhile, Kiba thought he'd finally caught Naruto when his target suddenly disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Thwarted, the dog-ninja and his companion headed back home to confront his sister. Little did he know that after hearing his complaints she would verbally tear him a new one, before quietly sending Naruto a message that she didn't want to meet up again for _that_ because she'd rather not upset her kid brother.

-X-

In the early afternoon, Naruto had delivered messages to both Lee and Hinata about what would happen the next day. He now had time to learn his new (stolen) jutsu. It was called the Paralysation Technique, and used a weak Lightning effect to freeze an opponent's muscular system by temporarily overloading some of the nerve endings. The first time he tried it on a clone, though, he accidentally stopped the heart as well. He created 200 more copies of himself and got to work.

By the time evening came, he had three new techniques done. The basic form was completed and would stop an opponent without permanent damage if he hit them with it and they were within ten metres, while he'd created two new skills out of it as well. After all, if he could do it accidentally with Sasuke's fire technique, how hard could it be?

There was a more powerful form that caused cardiac arrest that he'd called the Note Technique after one of his favourite manga, although it required about one and a half seconds of continuous use on a target that remained within five metres, and another different version that required physical contact with the target's skin and overloaded their brain, frying it and causing instant death. This was what he called his Hotpot Technique, for some fairly gruesome reasons that would make most civilians lose their lunch.

Then he wondered about how he could create more unique jutsu. It appeared that jutsu could be created by simply taking an existing framework and modifying it slightly, as long as the user understood it well enough to change it and had an idea for doing it. He was about to create twenty clones to consider whether any of his existing jutsu were good candidates, when he looked up and saw how dark it was. Just then he remembered something and cursed loudly. Today had been planned as a rest day, where he could relax and unwind. Instead he was learning and creating jutsu with masses of clones!

Was this what every ninja eventually became – a machine made solely for combat, with nothing else keeping them going about their everyday lives? Even more disturbingly, Naruto had spent time learning that jutsu based on his clone's decision. While it was technically also Naruto, he knew that one of the dangers of clones was losing a sense of self, which could quickly become lethal in battle if he forgot that he wasn't a clone.

His head heavy with gloomy thoughts, the orange-clad genin slowly made his way home.

-X-

**A/N**: So, I tried writing some fluffy romancy stuff. I'm not 100% satisfied with it, but I doubt I can do better right now. What do you think? Should I try to make this a NaruHina pairing, or leave pairings out, considering that the above stuff is the best I can write at the moment? I think I'll improve in that area if I write a lot of it, but the start will definitely be rocky.

I also tried to address some issues with clone use. If they're as powerful as in the manga, surely everyone would be using them, so I came up with some realistic drawbacks. Also, Naruto's been working hard, and he's now realised he needs to relax sometime too.

In terms of Naruto's maturity, he's got more memories of training than most people but hasn't physically and emotionally matured beyond teenager. However, getting freaky with a hot girl who's 2 years (I think) older is pretty much every 13 year-old's dream. And I like portraying Kiba as a bit of a pervert *grins*, although he hasn't completely corrupted Naruto yet.


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning dawned bright and clear. Naruto, Hinata and Lee were already doing warm-up routines of several hundred exercises when their instructor for the day appeared. Naruto's first impression was that the man looked like he hadn't slept in a week. His limp brown hair was tied back by a Konoha headband, and he had large bags under his eyes. He couldn't seem to stop coughing either. However, he had a certain air about him that spoke of vast amounts of killing. He smelled of blood.

"I am Hayate Gekko, special jonin," he introduced himself. "I will teach you for one day, so listen well. I will not repeat myself. My speciality is in two things: kenjutsu and KI. One day is nowhere near enough time to teach you any swordplay, so I will focus on KI instead, or as it is commonly known, Killing Intent."

He looked at Hinata. "Hyuga! What is killing intent?" he demanded.

"It's… it's a way for ninja to scare people by showing their killer instinct," she replied hesitantly.

"That's partially correct. Killing intent is, simply put, showing people your soul. Most ninja tend to have dark, bloody souls, stained by past murders, and I more so than most. However, you are too inexperienced to channel this, so I will teach an approximation." The man in front of them suddenly seemed a lot scarier, especially when he smiled while talking about all the people he'd killed. Naruto wondered how many lives had been ended by the unassuming jonin.

Naruto quickly concentrated on Hayate's words when he realised he had started speaking again. "I can completely paralyze you with fear for as long as I want, and could probably instantly kill a civilian with horror alone." For a brief second, the air went cold, the sky was dark, and the three genin could feel the certainty of their deaths at the hands of the slaughterer across from them. Then just as suddenly as it had come, the feeling disappeared, leaving them all shaken. Hinata had even fallen over. The man hadn't seemed to move at all.

"That was a milder form of my KI. It works because the human body can subliminally pick up from many small hints what another person is feeling or intending, although it's limited to violence, killing, lust or fear. KI involves activating as many of these points related to killing and violence as you can, so that the overall fearful effect is more than whoever your target is can handle. Jonin all go through desensitisation training, so they are harder to affect, but everyone is vulnerable to it to some degree."

He spent the next few hours demonstrating small changes they could make to their positioning to flare their KI, then having them practice each one on its own and with others. The only one of the three very subdued students who talked normally to him was the orange one, who asked how two conflicting methods of flaring KI could both be triggered simultaneously. The answer was chilling again it its simplicity. "After you've killed enough, your intent will leak out and activate those points on its own," the jonin simply said. "I'm getting you to memorise some of the points I can activate by just thinking about everyone I've killed, but until your hands are as blood-soaked as mine, you can't have the same effect."

By the end of the session, all three genin could scare each other quite severely, although Hayate seemed unaffected, and were able to subtly slide into the correct positions to combine between twelve (for Hinata) and seventeen (for Naruto) points of killing intent. Naruto, thanks to his clones, which he had decided he would only use during training and for missions, had perfected his technique and Hayate, who appeared grudgingly impressed, had given him a scroll with another fifty-two points on it. At noon, he simply walked off, his task completed, and Team 9 decided to do two D-rank missions that afternoon then spar together.

For the rest of the day everyone seemed a little grim due to the morning's training. Naruto resolved to learn as much of it as possible, however, so that he could gain another technique to increase his power, and that of his team. Hayate had been a stark reminder of the danger the ninja world posed to everyone in it, and KI seemed to be a powerful weapon against other genin and even chunin.

-X-

The second morning without a cheery talk about youthfulness from Guy at an ungodly hour left Lee looking quite depressed, and Naruto and Hinata also felt as though something was out of place. The three of them all quietly hoped for a less scary instructor today.

At precisely the allotted time, a man wearing a medic's outfit leapt into their usual training ground. He was a tall man with short, spiky black hair and a lanky frame. He also had bandages covering the left side of his face. "Greetings, Team 9, you may call me 'Yakan'," he began. "I have been ordered here by the Sandaime to teach you the basics of medical ninjutsu. Now, the most important thing for medics is chakra control."

Lee awkwardly stood to one side, feeling distinctly unyouthful at his exclusion from the day's teaching. The medic looked at him. "The Sandaime made me aware of your… condition, so here's something else you might find useful," and he tossed a scroll about treatment of muscle tears to Lee. Naruto was puzzled. What was Lee's condition, and why was the medic reluctant to mention it out loud? He resolved to find out when he next had the chance to talk to Lee alone.

"Now, to be a full medic, you need to be able to make a hole down the middle of a one-metre cotton thread with just your chakra, in one minute, two out of three times. But for patching up small injuries, a much lower level of mastery is sufficient." He scooped some small twigs off the ground. "Try to make a hole through the twigs with your chakra, without breaking through the bark. Be warned, though – the curved twigs are harder than the straight ones."

Naruto hunched over his first twig and concentrated. He slowly pushed his chakra out into a needle-like shape, trying to make a straight hole through the piece of wood, only to have it burst out through the bark. Next to him, Hinata activated her Byakugan and touched her stick at one end, making a perfectly round hole straight through the core. She shyly returned it to Yakan, who looked up in surprise. "That's very impressive! Try a curved stick now."

Within two minutes it was clear that Naruto had shoddy control compared with Hinata, who had completed all the exercises easily. The medic took her aside to start teaching her to heal minor injuries, while fifty Narutos concentrated on not setting their twigs on fire or tearing them apart. Lee was hanging upside-down from a tree branch by his knees, doing sit-ups as he read.

This set the pattern for the rest of the day. After two hours, Naruto had progressed considerably due to his clones, and started to learn some of the basic medical jutsu, but was soon stopped by Yakan, who led him off to the side and started talking quietly and intently. "Look, I know you know about your… tenant. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but right now, your chakra system contains some of its chakra, which means you can't successfully use medical ninjutsu. The fox's energy is too volatile for healing; you'll only injure someone if you try it. That doesn't mean you can't learn it, or even teach it, just that you can't use it."

Soon enough, the morning was over and the medic left, advising Hinata to look at some scrolls from the Archives if she wanted to learn some more medical ninjutsu. Lee and Naruto were left feeling rather down, which Hinata soon picked up on. She sidled over to Naruto. "I-I'm sorry… I can stop…" she said hesitantly.

"Eh? Stop what?" he asked her, with his puzzled Naruto face™ on.

"Learning medical skills," the Hyuga replied in a whisper.

Naruto was now wearing his super-puzzled Naruto face™. "Why would you want to stop? You're very good at it!"

"I… I don't want to exclude you or Lee… I know both of you can't learn it but it's not your fault, so it would be unfair…" Naruto interrupted her with a raised hand.

"Surely, if only one of us can heal, it's good for that person to practice it a lot? If I get injured, I'd want you to be able to heal me, not sitting around doing nothing for fear of hurting Lee's or my feelings. Don't ever hold back because you're worried about being too good at something." He grinned – here was a chance to motivate Hinata to become a better healer, which would also improve her chakra control. "The stronger you become, the better for our team. I'm always very impressed by how seriously you train, and that's why you're as strong as you are."

Hinata looked at him gratefully, a new fire in her eyes. "Yes! I will learn more medical jutsu to keep us all safe!" Lee wandered over to see what was up, but his attention was swiftly diverted by Naruto's stomach growling.

The three of them went to eat, then decided to spend the afternoon training instead of getting some more D-ranked missions, since they'd done more than enough over the last few weeks. Eventually, Naruto and Lee decided to have a taijutsu showdown with Hinata ready to try to heal any major injuries. The rules were simple: Lee would have his weights increased by 20%, and no-one was allowed to use kenjutsu, ninjutsu or genjutsu.

Lee and Naruto faced each other on an open field in training area 14. They bowed, then faced each other. For a long moment, they stared into each other's eyes, not moving. Then, as though at a prearranged signal, they charged at each other, fists pulled back to strike.

On the first pass, neither of them hit the other. However, Lee immediately spun around and landed a kick on Naruto's leg, sending him sprawling to the floor. Naruto bounced back up and charged at Lee, feinted a high kick, and barrelled into him, throwing him back with his body. Lee flipped back to his feet quickly, and both resumed their stances from the beginning of the battle.

Naruto charged in again, landing a jab on Lee's stomach and a hook to his cheek, but took a kick straight to the face in exchange. Lee went on the offensive, trying to pin him, but Naruto wriggled out and hit him three times quickly in the chest. Suddenly, he felt a kick to the bottom of his chin, and was launched into the air. He felt Lee move behind him, when he suddenly launched a kick backwards. He used Lee's blocking arm to manoeuvre around, ending up floating behind Lee.

As he prepared for a finishing combination of strikes, he suddenly felt an elbow strike to the head and another to the solar plexus. Lee spun around and delivered a punishing barrage of blows that he couldn't avoid or block. Naruto was sent crashing to the ground, where he left a large dent in the meadow. Lee landed next to him, reached down, and pronounced him unconscious. As soon as Hinata had revived Naruto, though, Lee was quick to congratulate him on his strategy. "It was a most youthful attempt, and you almost succeeded!" He seemed to be making up for Guy's absence by using the word 'youthful' even more than he normally did.

-X-

The third teacher that Team 9 received was a woman with purple hair, a long trench-coat, a ninja mesh shirt, and very little else. She was happily sitting on one of the training posts of their usual meeting place and training area, munching on a sweet of some sort. "There you are!" she shouted when she saw them. "My name's Anko Mitarashi, and I'm a special jonin tasked with making real ninja out of you!" She launched the empty wooden skewer her food had been on into a nearby training post.

"Right, today's training is simple. I will stay here until noon, and I will fight you non-stop. Let's go!"

And with that, she darted forwards and sunk her fist into Naruto's stomach. He burst into a cloud of smoke and she narrowly dodged a hail of shuriken from the nearest tree, laughing madly. As Lee moved in with a wheel kick, slipped into his guard and threw him into the ground hard enough to leave a depression. She switched with a log just in time to avoid Hinata's Juken strike from behind.

By the time noon came, all three genin were near to collapsing, while Anko didn't even have a scratch on her. "Seeya later suckers!" she shouted as she strolled off, leaving Team 9 lying in a heap. Naruto was covered in small cuts, Hinata had a gash from her forehead to her neck, and Lee looked as though he had half the training ground stuck on his uniform. All three were covered in sweat and out of breath.

-X-

The next six days were comparatively uneventful. Team 9 would meet up in the morning, have a jonin or occasional chunin show up and teach something, and then do one or two missions as well as more physical training in the afternoon and evening. Their instructors covered a huge range of subjects, from how to do trick shots with thrown weapons, to simple illusions, to using sealing scrolls to transport large items.

Hinata had continued working on her medical jutsu and genjutsu, as Juken requires a very high level of chakra control, and she had little difficulty with most of the healing and illusion techniques. Lee decided he wanted to get a weapon at some point,but he'd wait until he could get a really big one – he'd found that normal sized swords were simply too light for him to control at his normal speed. Naruto had focussed on killing intent and trick shots with weapons, as he could combine both these techniques with clones.

Finally, on the tenth day after Guy had left, Team 9 came into their usual training area to find a tall man in green spandex waiting for them. "Hello, my team! I have returned triumphant! The power of youth has outshone the coolness of my eternal rival! I…" At this point, Lee barrelled into him with a hug hard enough to make Guy gasp for breath.

"I've missed you Guy-sensei!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.

Guy had larger-than-life tears streaking down his face. "My youthful students! It was hard to leave you, but it was necessary to save the lives of Konoha ninja!"

Much later, Guy and Lee had finished their display of affection and the reunited Team 9 started doing what they did best – physical exercises for 12 hours straight.

-X-

**A/N**: Just for the record, kenjutsu is to swords what taijutsu is to unarmed combat. I really enjoyed writing a scene where Lee gets to kick Naruto's ass. Lee's often underrated, I think. By the forest of death part of the chunin exams in canon, he's probably the strongest Konoha genin (he'd definitely cream Neji, Naruto & Sasuke), and he's nearly as strong as Gaara.

Next week: find out what happened during the Wave mission! (_Probably_ next week, but maybe sooner!)

Also, please review – I like to know what you think of my story, even if it's just "That's another chapter kinda like the last ones".


	10. Chapter 10

"So, where to begin," Sasuke said. He was in the training area where Naruto had agreed to teach him. Opposite him Naruto was paying close attention, hoping to finally find out where Guy had been the last week.

"How about at the beginning?" he asked.

Sasuke sighed. "Ok, to start with, Team 7 got given a mission to protect a bridge-builder from Wave country."

"I know that, you told me that before you left!" Naruto interjected.

"Look do you want me to tell you or not?" Sasuke said. "If you keep interrupting I'll just stop."

"Ok, I'll be quiet," Naruto said meekly.

Sasuke leant back. "It all started with a simple bodyguard mission…

"We were travelling towards Wave country, and had been on the road for a few days. We'd been walking, as Tazuna, the man we were protecting, was a rather old man who couldn't travel any quicker.

"Ino was as annoying as usual, continually trying to get me to agree to go on a date with her when we got back. Meanwhile, Neji was doing some weird Hyuga chakra exercise where he made a leaf float around his hands. Do you know that one? Ok, it seemed to be based on pulling with small amounts of chakra and pushing from another part of the hand. He said it helps improve Juken. Anyway, he was doing that, and our glorious leader was reading some sort of smut. He has this orange book that he's never without, and it's apparently full of 'inappropriate material for young children', or at least that's what he told me when I asked. He even seems proud of it!

"As we were walking along, a pair of weird ninja with a chain stretched between them came out of a puddle and attacked Kakashi. He used the substitution technique combined with a genjutsu to fake his death and disappear, so he could see who the ninja were targeting. We later found out that they were after Tazuna, who'd lied about how much danger he was in because he was broke and needed some protection.

"Neji killed one with Juken – I was quite surprised at how lethal it can be; he only hit his foe twice. I injured the other one, then Kakashi took him down for questioning. Ino, as per usual, was a dead weight. We eventually decided to continue with the mission anyway.

"Nothing much happened for a while. But about half an hour into Wave country, we were attacked by a jonin-level missing-nin called Zabuza the Demon, one of the seven swordsmen of the Mist. Kakashi revealed what he has under his eyepatch – it's a Sharingan eye! Anyway, he defeated Zabuza easily because Neji's Byakugan could see through the fog. He simply told him where Zabuza was and the rest was easy – Kakashi kept hitting him with various copied techniques, and then used a kunai to stab him in the stomach.

"This random hunter-nin came out of nowhere and finished him off with a pair of senbon to the neck, then took the body away. We found out later that he was actually working for Zabuza. Anyway, we realised that he was fishy and Kakashi set some training. He was going to make us do tree-climbing, but since you'd already shown me that and I'd gotten the hang of it, he moved us on to water-walking. Can you do it? Yeah, me too.

"Anyway, eventually the pair of missing-nins struck. Kakashi used his Sharingan again, and he'd crippled Zabuza's arms, while the fake hunter, who we found out was called Haku, nearly killed Ino. Neji and I took him down once my Sharingan awakened. Yeah, it's really awesome – I can predict movements, see through genjutsu, and reflect ninjutsu. I'll show you later. So, we beat the missing-nin but then he escaped and covered Zabuza with his own body when Kakashi was about to kill him with a special technique called Lightning Slice. It's basically a hand full of lightning, and it made a hole straight through Haku's chest.

"Zabuza somehow pinned Kakashi and was about to kill him when Guy appeared and broke about half his ribs with a 'dynamic entry', as he called it. Zabuza grabbed his sword and ran away, the guy who hired him turned up with about a hundred bandits and we beat them all, and then we killed him – he was called Gateau. The next day, the bridge was complete and we left for home.

"Neji was really pissed off when Guy arrived, by the way. Those two really don't get on, and Guy saving everyone only made it worse. Neji said something about confronting Guy about his 'hero complex' later today, I think it was about four o'clock when your teacher's going to deliver his mission report."

"The mission report must be why he's busy today," Naruto mused. "Wait, so Neji wants to go and argue with Guy?"

Sasuke nodded. "That's what he told me, at least. And he looked pretty livid."

"Not good… Guy's likely to get pretty upset, especially if it's Neji. I'll have to go do something then. For now, let's train."

Sasuke nodded. "By the way, how did you get on with the technique I showed you?"

Naruto stood up and looked to the sky, then launched a massive fireball at the heavens. It travelled about two hundred metres before dispersing. "That's not all though," he said. "I figured out another move based on this one." He turned to a nearby boulder, ten feet around. With a swift motion, he launched a spear of flames straight into it, leaving a hole large enough to fit a small child into. There were splashes of molten stone splattered around the rock, and even twenty feet away Naruto and Sasuke could feel the heat coming off it. "I call it the Dragon Lance technique."

Sasuke was stunned. In such a short span of time, Naruto had not only mastered the Uchiha clan's primary jutsu, he'd also created a completely new version that focussed the technique's power into an unstoppable beam! He resolved there and then that no matter what technique Naruto asked for, he'd get it, as long as he taught Sasuke his new abilities.

"Well, that was… impressive," he deadpanned. "Let's get to training. What are we doing today?" Naruto started explaining how to improve your fire affinity to increase the power of the Great Fireball, while Sasuke acted as though his life hung on every word.

-X-

At 3pm, Naruto left Sasuke to practice the new training techniques he'd just been given, and went to meet Hinata.

"So, I'm worried about our sensei. I mean, apparently in the last team he had, Lee was the only one who really embraced his teachings. And now Neji, his ex-student, wants to demotivate him. We need to come up with a way to demonstrate that we definitely embrace his philosophies of youthfulness, and won't turn on him like Neji. But how? Lee might know something, but I can't find him right now. I think he said he was doing another ninja marathon."

"Well…" Hinata began hesitantly. "There's one thing I can think of that should do it…"

-X-

"Guy! I want to talk to you!" Neji shouted.

Guy turned around. "Ah, a youthful young genin. What can I do for you on this fine day?"

The Hyuga was trembling with supressed emotions. "Stop – saying – youthful!" he forced out through gritted teeth. "Why do you always act the fool? You show up to 'save' us from a missing-nin, not that we needed saving, and the first sentence you say contains the word 'youthful' four times! There's no way a jonin like you could be as stupid as you pretend, so why? Why do you act the fool all the time? I have no respect for you whatsoever. Most jonin at least pick something quiet to be insane about, but you've decided to force others to listen to your crap! I really–"

At this moment, a double impact sound interrupted Neji's diatribe. As the dust thrown up between him and the jonin cleared, it revealed two bright green forms. A mop of spiky blond hair topped one spandex-wearing ninja, while the other had pale, pupil-less eyes. "That's enough!" Naruto shouted. "Just because you have your own problems doesn't mean you can take it out on a man who has only tried to help you!" Suddenly, he and Hinata were bullrushed from behind and hugged by a beaming Guy.

"Ah, my youthful students!" he cried, as tears streamed down his cheeks. "You have so much potential, for you are geniuses of hard work!"

Neji's face looked like thunder. "I will prove to you that your philosophies are inferior, then. Uzumaki, I challenge you to a battle in one week's time. If I win, you will be forced to wear spandex for the rest of your life."

Naruto grinned back. "If you think that wearing spandex is a good forfeit, I propose the same to you. If I win, you have to wear spandex for at least an hour a day for the next month. Besides, are you sure you want me to beat you again?"

"Last time, you won due to a trick!" Neji announced angrily. "This time, I shall prove the superiority of myself and the Hyuga in the public eye."

"Are you forgetting me, cousin?" Hinata asked angrily. "I, too, would be interested in a fight with you."

"It is one thing to make a clown out of a ramen-brained idiot such as Uzumaki, and quite another to do so towards a main-branch Hyuga. Remember your place!" and with those words, Neji leapt onto a rooftop and disappeared.

"Well," Naruto said, "that could have gone better." Inside, however, he was beaming. He could beat Neji again, this time publicly, then humiliate him. Hinata had also shown some real fighting spirit, and they'd both agreed that the spandex was quite comfortable, although for some reason Hinata had decided to wear a rather baggy suit, rather than one like Naruto that clung to his muscles. And lastly, Guy seemed to be in good spirits again. Speaking of which…

"Come! Let us show the springtime of our youth so we can blossom to all we can be!" Guy declared. He grabbed Naruto and Hinata by the scruffs of their necks and dragged them off to train.

-X-

That evening, Naruto and Sasuke were at their usual meeting place. Naruto had made several hundred clones to practice a new idea Sasuke had had for a jutsu, after they'd rehashed their agreement. Sasuke would let Naruto read most jutsu scrolls he wanted, and in exchange Naruto would attempt to teach him any new jutsu he created. As Sasuke had said, Naruto was in a much better position to experiment with new jutsu, since he could devote a lot of time to it if he used clones, and any fatal misfires would only dispel him.

Now Naruto's clones were working on something with the working title 'Sea of Flames', where the entire area in front of the user was consumed in a roiling sea of fire. So far, it looked promising.

Sasuke had also shown Naruto the Sharingan. Anything he saw with it was permanently memorised, and he could see and analyse the chakra flows of other ninja. It also helped him learn the Dragon's Lance from Naruto. Overall, he was very excited about it and generally wouldn't shut up. If Naruto had to hear about the 'true power of the Uchiha' one more time, he'd either throw up or knock Sasuke out.

"Okay, let's try the Dragon's Breath again at full strength!" he interrupted. Anything to get Sasuke to have to stop talking. Naruto leant back and launched a twenty-foot pillar of white-hot fire at a nearby rock, melting right through the half-ton monolith and continuing on a little further.

Sasuke groaned. "How can you be so energetic? I'm nearly out of chakra, yet you've got hundreds of copies all using high-level jutsu. I wouldn't be surprised if this is A-rank."

"Ok, I might be busy over the next two weeks, because we've finally got a C-rank for in ten days' time, and I need to fight Neji beforehand. So, here's your homework. Use jutsu, Sharingan, the water-walking exercise, anything at all to get your chakra levels down before you go to sleep. It should increase your reserves somewhat. Right now, you're probably at C-rank in terms of chakra capacity, and this can take you to B-rank." Naruto's clones dispelled one after the other to minimise the mental strain caused, and he bade Sasuke good night before leaving for home. Today had been a good day.

-X-

**A/N**: In canon, before he lost to Naruto, Neji was an asshole, but a lot of people gloss over that for some reason. Anyway, from here on out we have spandex galore! Is the world ready to cope with a complete team of spandex-clad heroes? There's only one way to find out!

On another note, I've come up with some chapter names. I'm not sure whether to add them, though. Let me know what you think: do you prefer chapter names, or just numbers?


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